The resultant design is extremely efficient and therefore complex. This complexity means that the design cannot be cost effectively manufactured and fixed as cut and bent reinforcement.

However, the Bamtec system consists of robotically manufactured reinforcement carpets that are simply and quickly rolled out on site and therefore the complex design can be easily manufactured and installed in Bamtec.

Our Bamtec redesigns are now up to 35% lighter than the cut and bent alternative.

This large tonnage reduction plus the speed with which Bamtec can be installed can result in substantial cost savings as shown by the below illustration (which uses data already achieved on sites using Bamtec).

On a project which was originally designed in traditional cut and bent reinforcement, with a density of 175 kg/m³ and a 300mm thick slab, a Bamtec redesign could produce a reinforcement density of only 114kg/m³ (a saving of 35 %).

Accordingly, the original cut and bent requirement of 78.75t per floor is reduced by the Hy-Ten redesign to 51.3t of Bamtec per floor.

Based on an example market rate for cut and bent reinforcement of £450 per tonne, the original cost for the 78.75t would be £35,438.

Bamtec is charged at a premium over and above cut and bent of approx. £130 per tonne (covering the manufacture of the carpets, redesign of the slab and the production of all drawings). So the cost of the 51.3t of Bamtec would be £29,754, giving a steel cost saving per floor of £5,684.

Fixing Cost Saving

Hy-Ten is able to supply large, quick to install carpets whose size is unrestricted by column centers. This is because we supply free of charge couplers for all internal column starter bars.

Contractors report that on sites where they would have been charged approx. £270/t to fix cut and bent slab reinforcement they are currently being charged £120/t for the fixing of Bamtec.

Given the above, the original 78.75t of cut and bent would have cost £21,263 to fix and the redesigned Bamtec requirement of 51.3t would cost £6156, resulting in a fixing cost saving of £15,107.

Accessories

If good quality high chairs and plastic spacer blocks (tric trac) are used to support Bamtec, we recommend they are placed at 600mm centers as opposed to the usual 1000mm centres. We make this recommendation because Bamtec carpets can weigh up to 1.7t.

This reduction in centres increases the cost of the high chairs and tric trac by two thirds. So if the cost was originally £1 per m², it will be £1.67 per m². Using the above example this will increase accessory costs by £1005 per floor (£0.67 x 1500m²).

TOTAL EXAMPLE SAVING

£5,684 steel cost saving + £15,107 fixing cost saving - £1005 accessory cost increase = £19,786 per floor

This is before savings resulting from programme acceleration - our Bamtec customers report real savings in cycle time and it is not unusual to save a week per floor on a project like the above example.

If you would like Hy-Ten to carry out a free appraisal of how much Bamtec can save your project, please phone 0151 525 1745 or email bamtec@hy-ten.co.uk.

Click here to view an example of our FE modelling