ASTRON - European news - 29 May 2006
ADVENTURES IN AFRICA!We often talk about ASTRON’s presence in Europe but it’s time to highlight a less well publicised area of our activities; the Maghreb countries! In just a few, short years, ASTRON has established excellent relationships with many of these countries, to the extent that a growing number of important industrial companies are calling upon the ASTRON building system for their projects. Algeria, for example, represents a significant and buoyant new market, as is demonstrated by the choice of ASTRON by Tonic Emballage, a giant Algerian paper and packaging group. Located on a site of several tens of hectares to the west of Algiers, Tonic Emballage had previously ordered the construction, at two places, of more than 80.000 m² of ASTRON buildings. The project, that included 20.000 m² of multi-storey buildings, comprised showrooms and offices, plus production and storage facilities for the company’s innovative packaging solutions. To further develop this vast packaging complex by the addition of a new factory for the transformation of recycled waste paper, Tonic Emballage once again called upon ASTRON. The site lies in a severe seismic zone. The construction of two buildings, side-by-side, of 60 m and 80 m free span therefore presented a considerable challenge. The task was made more difficult by the fact that the sidewall of the 80 m free span had to include a 30 m wide by 8 m high door to allow for the circulation of giant container handling machinery. The operating system of this door demanded that the structural framing be designed, manufactured and erected within very fine tolerances and should exhibit extremely low deflections. This imposing specification was achieved with a specially designed three-dimensional bar-joist frame, made of factory-prepared and straightened members. To ensure that all went well on site, the frame was subjected to an indoor assembly test to make sure that the fitting and alignment of the different pieces was accurate. The client’s own erection team, ably assisted by a Polish team, is to be congratulated on successfully completing this challenging project. |
|
|||
| Client: Tonic Emballage Architect: Tonic Emballage | ||||
Back the list of news