Context
Today, buildings use significant more concrete than structurally needed. This is due to a technological limitation that makes using efficient designs - based mostly on complex shapes, too expensive. Therefore, the common building methods rely on square shapes with planar surfaces, such as regular flat walls and floors. By using this traditional approach much of the materials used for the building are in excess. As the world is going through the largest wave of urbanization in history and key resources in the construction are rapidly depleted, the building sector must evolve towards implementing solutions that improve the material consumption efficiency.
The challenge:
->Buildings often require significantly more material than is structurally necessary.
->Construction sand will be depleted in the next 30 to 40 years.
->Construction sector emits 36% of the world's CO2.
Running a load analysis on construction structures shows that a significant volume of concrete in traditional buildings does not fulfil a structural. This dead-weight can be safely removed and replaced with more sustainable materials by using complex geometry to generate strength.
The limitation is that the resulting surface to be replaced has an irregular and unique shape and today there is no way today in which to efficiently produce the moulds for these complex surfaces in large volume, affordably and at speed.
The Svelte solution and its impact
->A new tool to improve the weight-to-strength ratio of buildings.
->Use no more concrete than structurally needed - up to 50% less.
->Reduce the emissions by using less materials and inherently less energy & transportation.
Svelte developed fully in-house a machine-system working on an innovative technology dedicated to generating double-curved moulds more efficiently than current solutions.
The Svelte solution by-passes CNCs and recreates any double-curved surface, no matter how complex, at constant speed, with a high degree of accuracy (=/- 0.6mm) in a single operation that reduces the production time of a 1x1m surface from 5-10 hours to 8 minutes.
As a result of its high-speed process, the solution holds enormous impact as it can produce double-curved moulds 60x faster and 50% cheaper than existing solutions. The moulds can be used for generating affordable architectural panels and precast concrete elements in the construction industry, but also for other industries with a high usage of complex shapes such as curved glass, shipbuilding, and the production of blades for onshore/offshore wind turbines.
Most importantly, Svelte is a key enabler for a more sustainable construction sector by using topology optimization to reduce the usage of materials in traditional construction. Walls, floors and supporting beams can be optimized to use less concrete by integrating Svelte produced shapes, adding up to 50% savings in construction materials while providing the same or improved structural properties.
EIC project objectives: ecology through optimization in construction
Within the EIC Accelerator grant project, Svelte completed the optimization of its machine-system and built its first industrial prototype ready to be scaled to start commercialization under a FIAB model. Within the scope of the project, Svelte’s innovative solution has been tested with real market stakeholders and future customers across 4 pilots in different fields of application. This enabled us to draw conclusions and act on how to better our production processes to meet real market requirements.
Furthermore, we invested part of the grant into ensuring its solution is ISO & CE Certified, and the technology is protected through two more patents, so Svelte’s innovative assets are prepared for future exploitation.
