Products and solutions Jan 17, 2005 1:00 AM
New ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG seminar center: innovative steel products in practice
ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG has built a new 6.5 million euro seminar center in Duisburg. The circular two-story building with a diameter of 40 meters provides 1,400 square meters of floor space for several seminar rooms and a plenary assembly hall. At the same time, the building - whose color scheme was designed by Friedrich Ernst von Garnier - is a calling card for the material steel and its contribution to modern, high-quality architecture.
Steel as a construction material is highly visible in the center`s structural steelwork, made of FR 30 structural steel, and in the DAVEX® profiles used in its facade. FR 30 is a new fire-resistant grade from ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG which has been approved for general use for fire resistance class F 30 since February 2001. Containing chromium, molybdenum and vanadium, this material displays significantly better elevated-temperature strength than the standard structural steel S235. Its so-called critical failure temperature is 140 degrees Kelvin higher than that of S235. FR 30 has been patented for ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG. In the design of the new seminar center in Duisburg, the FR 30 beams project through the facade at several points, making the structural steelwork visible from the outside.
Visible from inside the building are the DAVEX® facade beams from ThyssenKrupp Davex GmbH which serve as the substructure for the roughly 1,300 square meter glass facade. Some 2,500 meters of DAVEX® profiles were used for the segmented post and rail structure, demonstrating that they meet all requirements for high-quality facades even on circular buildings and are not only elegant in appearance but also versatile and flexible. The profiles allow a free choice of facade material, and joining the facades to the DAVEX® substructure also presents no difficulties.
Most of the DAVEX® profiles used for the new seminar center have perforated webs and function as attractive architectural elements in the facade areas visible from the inside. Profiles with non-perforated webs were used wherever the beams are not visible. Double-T profiles produced using DAVEX® technology are to be found wherever panels or partition walls had to be attached flush to the inside walls. In areas with particular sound insulation requirements, for example meeting rooms, DAVEX® profiles were used as double posts with a special sound-insulating filling.
DAVEX® profiles are made by the so-called roll joining process. A special rolling tool rolls a groove into the flange material. In parallel with this, a contour is worked into the edges of the material to be used as the web, which is inserted in the flange groove. A locking groove is then rolled into the flange on both sides of the web, causing flange material to flow into the contours on the web edges. This provides a frictional and positive bond without the need for welding. The DAVEX® process can be used to manufacture steel beams with webs which, relative to the flange, are significantly slimmer than on conventional hot-rolled profiles. Moreover, the profiles are precision-shaped, display sharp edges and can be produced with perforated webs. DAVEX® profiles were approved for general building use in May 2004.
Contact:
ThyssenKrupp Steel AG
Dietmar Stamm
Phone: +49 203 / 52 - 2 62 67
Fax: +49 203 / 52 - 2 57 07
E-mail: dietmar.stamm@tks.thyssenkrupp.com
Bernd Overmaat
Phone: +49 203 / 52 - 4 51 85
Fax: +49 203 / 52 - 2 57 07
E-mail: bernd.overmaat@tks.thyssenkrupp.com