Flächentragwerke aus flexibel spaltprofilierten Blechbauteilen

Load-bearing surface structures made of flexible flow split sheet metal components

Freeform shapes are playing an increasingly important role in contemporary architecture especially since it is possible to plan them with CAD-tools that were newly developed in the past 20 years. This gives room for new architectural design languages to evolve. The serial production as researched in the Collaborative Research Center 666 (CRC 666) offers the potential to simplify the construction of these new architectural shapes.
CRC 666 explores different methods of cold formed metal sheets in particular flow splitting and bend splitting. Through this process an ultrafine grain structure (UFG), which is characterized by material hardening, is created. These profiles can be manufactured with defined curvature radii. In the following processing steps cut-outs can be milled. Today these technologies offer the possibility to use sheet metal material as structural elements of free-form shells or skins.
To apply these new manufacturing technologies to individual structures, the production processes already need to be considered in the early design phase of a building. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the requirements and restrictions of these production technologies.