Precast Technology on the Move

In an interaction with Built Constructions, Mr. C A Prasad, Director, Metey Engineering & Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., says the precast concrete adds value in reducing the construction waste and debris on site, reducing construction Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).

The advantages of Precast are enabling the industry to bring in lot of technological trend. As on today, there are more than 20 full-fledged Precast Industries set up in India. In order to tide over the short supply of skilled labour in the construction sector, most developers have moved away from the conventional construction to precast technology and set it up in their own sites and meeting the requirements of faster construction and deliveries. Some such developers are, Sobha, Brigades, Shirke, Teemage and Janapriya.

Precast suppliers who are supplying for others include PRECA, India Precast, Simplex and Spancrete among others. More and more developers are looking at early completion of projects and are resorting to Precast construction.

Expertise in Designing and Detailing of Precast Structures

Having stayed in the Middle East, especially in Dubai for about ten years, I have designed number of towers which included precast elements in it, and also exclusively precast structures for shopping malls, residential and commercial structures. There are a plethora of advantages of precast concrete building structures over other conventional structures. Precast concrete enables:

• Factory condition production
• All weather working
• Better quality, finish, and accuracy
• Less labour, Less wastage, and Less cost
• Faster cycle time
• Scalability and repeatability
• Off site working and parallel working
• Standardisation in Design, Engineering & Execution

We offer several services in the area of precast including:

• Design and detailing of Precast concrete structures
• Advising on the possibility of Precast adoption into the structure and its cost effectiveness
• Advising on the need for set up of precast unit within or outside the site
• Advising on the cost aspects of setting up of precast unit, and the cost realisation of set up of precast unit
• Creating awareness amongst the Architects and Engineers and imparting knowledge by conducting the workshops on Precast on behalf of PSI (Pre Engineered structures society of India) and I am one of the founder secretaries of it

Precast in Addressing Sustainable Engineering

The low water-cement ratios possible with precast concrete -0.36 to 0.38- mean it can be extremely durable and sustainable. The thermal mass of concrete allows shifting of heating and cooling loads in a structure to help reduce mechanical-system requirements. Because precast concrete is factory-made, there is little waste created in the plant (most plants employ exact-batching technologies) and it reduces construction waste and debris on site, reducing construction Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) concerns. The thermal mass of precast concrete absorbs and releases heat slowly, shifting air conditioning and heating loads to allow smaller, more efficient heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The amount of cement used in precast concrete may be reduced by up to 60% through substitution by supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Fly ash, slag, and silica fume, which would otherwise go to landfills, can be incorporated into concrete as supplementary materials.