Standing strong, even when the earth is shaking
The third-largest mosque in the world, featuring the highest tower built in Africa, and all that in area with earthquake risks: In order to make this structure as safe as possible, the company Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG has assembled earth-quake bearings with the electric torque multiplier alkitronic EFCip and delivered these to Algeria.
COMPANY PROFILE
Munich, Germany based Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG has its origin in steel construction, and is today a specialist in the field of “forces in motion”. The core competences of the company include building protection systems, amusement rides, research and development and the construction of steel structures. Spread around the world, Maurer Söhne GmbH is active internationally, employing approx. 1,000 staff on production sites in Munich, China, India and Turkey.
INITIAL SITUATION
Currently, the third-largest mosque worldwide is being built in Algiers. In this huge complex, planned by a German team of architects, there will be enough space for 30,000 wor-shippers in the main prayer hall, but there will be also residential units, parks, a cultural centre, and much more – in short, a com-pletely new suburb for the city of Algiers will be constructed by the year 2016. With 256 metres in height, the minaret will be one of the tallest buildings in Africa. However, this construction is carried out in an area where earthquakes are frequent.
SOLUTION
In order to keep the mosque damage-free in possible earthquakes and so as not to endanger human lives, the engineers of the company Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG have found a solution: The steel builders from Munich delivered 250 earthquake bearings, which were installed in August 2012 underneath the mosque and the minaret. “These earthquake bearings consisting of several parts provide for a destruction-free motion of the structure,” says Manfred Krämer, Head of Bearing Construction at Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG.
The individual components of the bearings must be bolted together, in order to ensure this earthquake protection level. “Especially suitable is our electric torque multiplier alkitronic EFCip”, says one of the alkitronic area sales managers. The advantages of this tool lie in the torque of 2800 Nm on M36 HV bolts, in the high repeatability, which exceeds the precision of a manual torque multiplier and saves the workers a great of time and effort, all through the ergonomic operation of the electric torque multiplier.
This assessment is shared by Manfred Krämer of Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG: “Considering the quantity of 1,000 bolts that had to be tightened in the series of 250 bear-ings, the strain reduction and the increase of quality were significant.” Also his evaluation of the alkitronic service is positive, with “all issues in bolting directly addressed and re-solved; and the bolts tight enough to withstand bombings.”
Photos: KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten
