Smart and sustainable transport of large building parts needs a smart and sustainable lobby

Design a lobby to make sure no damage is created during the loading and unloading of prefab roofs

Bouwmetaal produces prefab roofing- and cladding products used in construction. The products are made of high-quality metal sheets and coils. Every product is tailor-made. Companies are working together to improve transportation security, sustainability and quality, without using plastic and other polluting materials. This project is about finding a method to make a lorry that will not damage the materials during loading and unloading.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Innovation Hub Tubbergen is a collaboration between four companies; Bouwmetaal, Kamphuis Sloopwerken, Loohuis Installatietechnieken en Loogisch. Four regional entrepreneurs cooperate to obtain shared innovation goals. This project is being carried out by one of the four companies, Bouwmetaal. The companies are working together to improve the security, sustainability and quality of the transportation, without using plastic and other polluting materials. This project is about finding a method to make a lorry that will not damage the materials during loading and unloading.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

Bouwmetaal produces prefab roofing- and cladding products used in construction. The products are made of high-quality metal sheets and coils. Every product is tailor-made. In most construction projects, Bouwmetaal is also responsible for mounting the products. When transporting large building bulk materials, the loading and unloading handlings are the most vulnerable moments.

In the current process of the project that Bouwmetaal works on, products can get damaged for many reasons. Improving the protection of products and reducing the number of damage cases has an economic and operational advantage.

The most common form of damage that Bouwmetaal encounters are scratches to the surface of products. If a product is scratched, usually it cannot be further used and must be replaced. This again results in the production, transportation and mounting of an entirely new product. This causes delays in the project process and additional work for employees.

How can Bouwmetaal transport large prefab construction parts damage free, from the Bouwmetaal workshop to the construction site? In an earlier student research by Pim Langeveld, some suggestions have already come up, such as; the usage of rubber anti-slip mats and anti-slip product separators. This limits the movement of the products during transportation in the truck and thus ensures a strong reduction in the surface damage.

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION

The next step would be to design a solution in the form of an addition to the Lorry itself. The objective is to reduce any movement of the transported parts significantly, since movement causes damage in most cases. Building parts on pallets could perhaps be lifted and removed from the truck with a sled? The owner of Bouwmetaal proposed a construction that is in concept comparable to a stretcher in an ambulance.

The goal is to come up with an innovative solution for the mentioned problem. This should not only include the handling of the materials and the protection during the process process, but it should also include the design of a smart device on the lorries that transport them. Can you come up with the ultimate solution and work it out in detail? The initial idea is to design a sliding construction and a loading and unloading handling machine. But the InnovationHub is open for new suggestions. There is real freedom of design creativity in this project. The InnovationHub/Bouwmetaal is ready to invest in further improving the bulk material handlings by testing the solutions and hopefully being able to apply them on a large scale.

We expect the students to come up with creative design solutions and choose together with us the real promising solution. This one solution will be worked out in further detail and after which the first scale prototype will be realized. The student will have full access to information to be delivered by the four entrepreneurs. Also nice office working conditions will be provided and you will work in a really dynamic and innovative environment. You will work in a team together with other students working on different projects.