Behold the putzmeister
September 16, 2004I love the Discovery Channel. Last night they had a show about Turning Torso, apparently the largest single residential building ever constructed. And with, literally, a unique twist–the building doesn’t go straight up, it twists around like a spiral staircase.
The show was fascinating, it was all about how the building is being constructed. They talked about supplier issues like the Spanish steel company that initially delivered faulty beams. And there was the engineering challenges like the spine, a large twisty rebar structure that prevents the building from swaying more than a foot even during the harsh Swedish winter storms.
But the best part was learning how they poured concrete 36 floors straight up. They used a specialty pump built by Putzmeister. That’s awesome–who knew there was a company called Putzmeister? How cool would that be on your business card–hi, I’m Rex from Putzmeister.
The pump was amazing–it could push something like a ton per second of concrete from ground level up to the 36th floor. Of course it did break down at one point during the show, but that’s kinda to be expected since they were pushing the limits of the engineering.
If you get a chance to catch the show about Turning Torso, it’s definitely worth watching.
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