At the heart of most skyscrapers is a concrete core. It is the backbone of the building that not only serves as a space for elevators, stair cases and utilities, but more importantly adds strength to support the lateral loads caused by wind and earthquakes.
Building concrete cores using hydraulic climbing formwork has gained in popularity over the years, as it frees up valuable crane time and labor on the job-site. Instead of having a crane lifting formwork panels and platforms from level to level, a self-climbing formwork system climbs independently, using hydraulics that lift the entire unit consisting of formwork and working platforms from one level to the next.
PERI’s new ACS-Core 400 (Automatic Climbing System - Core 400) achieves this process in only 20 minutes. It has been designed specifically with the US High-Rise market in mind. The system features a high capacity single stroke cylinder and requires less brackets, anchors and overall parts and pieces as well as increased safety and less crane time when installing the external suspended platforms.
Another differentiating factor of the ACS-Core 400 is that the trailing climbing brackets re-use the same two anchors from the leading working brackets during the climbing process. This reduces labor and embedded items which results in major time and cost savings on each level.
The hydraulic cylinders each have a 40 ton lifting capacity, enough to carry large concrete placing booms on top of the unit as well as the suspended external core formwork and working platforms. This is especially useful if the core climbs ahead of the rest of the building, as it eliminates the need for a separate external climbing system on the outside of the core.
Stripping the formwork is easy, specially developed shaft corners and stripping elements allow for easy manual striking with wedges or hydraulic striking with the push of a button of the inside formwork. The outside formwork simply rolls back on overhead gallows. The ACS Core 400 is primarily used with the Girder Wall Formwork, VARIO GT 24, but is also compatible with panel formwork such as TRIO and MAXIMO.
PERI offers preassembly of the formwork, platforms, and main system components, which speeds up the initial installation as well as facilitates job sites with space constraints.