Precast is a smart, industrialised way to build high-quality buildings of any type in a safe and affordable manner. Factory-made precast ensures shorter construction times, high profitability and consistently high quality. Elematic's SEMI Floor precast production line is optimal for the vast amount of Indian building projects, thanks to its adaptable technology, advanced machinery and low set up costs.

Pre-stressed slabs are ideal for growing economies. Compared to cast-in-situ, precast uses less of everything - less cement, less water and less steel - and produces less waste on-site and in the factory.

It is also an energy-saving building method that incorporates good insulation and thermal properties, and has lower lifetime costs than any other building solution.

'The use of pre-stressed hollow-core slabs also lessens the overall load of the building, which has an impact on the foundation requirements. All this brings down the total cost of the structure,' says Sumedh Gupta, Business Development Manager at Elematic.

Elematic's SEMI Floor line is well suited for the production of hollow core slabs, but it can be also used for producing several other slab types such as ribbed/half slabs, solid slabs and piles.

It is a sophisticated, mechanised production line with modern advanced machinery for key functions - and it can be started without heavy set-up and launch costs. The required initial investment is about 20 per cent less compared to a similar line with conventional solutions. The main benefits of implementing SEMI Floor technology include a substantial reduction in concrete consumption, and the reduced amount of steel in the floors.

The Elematic SEMI Floor production line is designed to meet the needs of a quick-and-easy start-up in precast floor production. Thanks to innovations in machinery design and fully mechanised operations, the line offers excellent productivity in its class and is simple to operate and maintain. In India, the majority of buildings are still constructed with cast-in-situ methods but more and more developers are now realising the benefits of precast in a wide variety of projects.

'Pre-stressed precast elements have not been in extensive use ? even in large scale infrastructure projects, post tensioning has been the traditional way. Now more businesses are adopting precast, and the awareness of its advantages is growing,' Gupta adds.

Machinery
Key equipment in the production line includes the Extruder S5, the Sawpreparer S5 and the Bed S5, all of which take advantage of fresh new features that result in excellent slab quality and increase factory productivity. The Extruder S5 employs the original Elematic shear compaction technology that creates top quality end products and brings production costs down by minimising the use of concrete. It is an extruder that features everything needed for efficient compaction with no superfluous extras, making it a budget-friendly choice.

The Sawpreparer S5 is a unique innovation, a combination of three processes: sawing, cleaning and strand pulling. Compared to a conventional separate saw and preparer system, the Sawpreparer S5 cuts the number of lifts in half. The machine is also incredibly convenient to use: its features include an advanced graphic user interface, a camera system for excellent situational awareness and improved safety, a 4WD for fast cleaning and strand pulling, and fully electronic operation, meaning decreased need for maintenance and higher reliability. The Bed S5 adds even more practical features to the SEMI Floor line, including a high-quality even surface and a rigid steel structure, which guarantee the straightness and evenness of slabs.

As with all Elematic production lines, the SEMI Floor is also designed to generate the lowest possible operational costs and the best end products. All machinery in the production line meet the strict requirements of the EC Machinery Directive, and the extruder is also a low-noise machine (<85 dB). The line can be - and almost always is - custom-built to suit the particular needs of each specific factory.