Smart formwork techniques

Over 150 years of formwork experience. The Doka company has grown from a small carpentry workshop into a globally active formwork company. An innovative player with many clever formwork techniques in its product range, such as the guided climbing formwork Xclimb and the Dokadek panel floor formwork. An interview with Erik Caris, Engineering Manager at Doka Netherlands about these innovative concepts.

For construction work at height, it is possible to erect safety screens to reduce fall lines, so that tools, debris or other objects do not end up in the street from a great height, with potentially serious consequences. Because in many projects the facade still has to be finished eventually, Doka Netherlands is increasingly making the combination of a safety screen with a scaffold structure. "With the Xclimb guided climbing formwork, we combine two functionalities in one system, a climbing formwork for assembling facades and/or making the shell construction safe, which also serves as a safety screen," says Caris, who adds that the concept is widely used abroad. "Interest is also growing in the Netherlands, even in projects where the facade is largely prefabricated. This means that one can build scaffold-free."

Guided climbing formwork

The Xclimb system works its way up through the concrete shell. "The system is suspended via special shoes from embedded anchors in the concrete shell," explains Caris. "The permanent guidance to the structure allows the system to move upward even at high wind speeds. It results in less delay. Suspended platforms can then be attached at any location on the scaffold, as can integrable ladders and manholes that provide a secure connection between the work platforms." The Xclimb system is either pulled up with the construction crane, but with the light and quick-mount hydraulic cylinders, the concept can also be self-climbing.

Flexible platform

The Xclimb system from Doka is currently being used, for example, on the construction of the slender residential tower in the Sluisbuurt, a new neighborhood on Zeeburgereiland in Amsterdam East, and on the Downtown new construction project in the center of Rotterdam. "Here we have even integrated a flexible platform that can slide almost 2 meters in and out to bridge the whimsical shapes of the facade. Think of balcony solutions. No two projects have been the same so far, which makes it extra challenging for our engineering department." The safety screen is delivered prefabricated in transportable blocks up to 3.5 meters wide, which are connected with dowel pins or bolts and hung on the structure. "Assembly is fast and efficient," assures Caris.

The evolution of floor formwork

Speed and safety are the spearheads of the carrierless panel floor formwork Dokadek 30. "It is a panel system that allows you to form cast-in-place floors very quickly," says Caris. "The system is very easy to set up from a safe surface. It is a matter of hanging a panel in it and moving the whole thing upwards. In this way, you can quickly and safely achieve 3 m2 of slab formwork in one move. Dokadek 30 combines the advantages of a panel floor formwork with the advantages of a Dokaflex floor formwork for the adaptors. The system has been around for some time, but was only fairly recently introduced to the Dutch market. Since then, demand has exploded. It promotes speed and safety and guarantees consistent quality. More and more contractors are therefore moving away from the wide slab floor and opting for a fully cast floor, partly because of the flexibility and space required for installations in the floor."