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NEXT GENETAT ION STAIRCASE MOULDS PRECAST CONCRETE ELEMENTS
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CPI Concrete Plant International 4 | 2009 www.cpi-worldwide.com 152
PRECAST CONCRETE ELEMENTS
Anthony Jannes, Construx b.v.b.a., Belgium
A new multipurpose winding staircase
mould for Juma Beton in Balen, Belgium
Upside down is the only good way to make
a precast winding staircase. Doing so the
steps will have a fair faced finish and diffe-
rent nosing details are easy to achieve. A
winding staircase mould has to be erected
by stacking stair mould elements one on top
of another whilst adjusting and connecting
them to suit the right dimensions. All former
systems were limited because of three rea-
sons: different moulds for different nosing
details, right and left stairs required separa-
te moulds, the small width of the stair mould
elements which left not much of a working
space lead to a poor safety level. The
Construx engineers coped with all three
issues. The winding stair mould element
they conceived is reversible, it has a straight
step finish on one side and a sloping
inwards step with nose finish on the other
side. The sloping inwards step with nose is
shaped by means of a triangular magnetic
chamfer and the riser may vary from
165mm up to 195mm. All mould elements
are the same whether you have to make a
right or a left staircase and whatever the
configuration of the staircase may be. The
mould elements are wide enough to work
on in a safe way, depending on the width
of the stairs an approximate 600mm wide
working area is available besides the actu-
al stairs. The main advantage for Juma
Beton consists in the fact that these moulds
are always in use. They have an annual out-
put of over 2000 staircases, both winding
and straight flights and sometimes they only
had less than half of their winding staircase
moulds in use. Construx comprehensive
design and manufacturing service provided
an economic and safe solution for Juma
Betons requirements.
A fully hydraulic adjustable (risers as
well as goings) stair mould for OMG
Prefabbeton in Dessel, Belgium
Up to today, hydraulically adjustable stair
moulds have never been fully hydraulic.
Only one measure could be adjusted by
means of hydraulic rams: the horizontal
distance in between two steps. By using
hydraulics, all goings could be moved in
one simultaneous movement. The risers still
had to be adjusted manually and only one
at a time. Construx conceived a second
synchronized hydraulic movement which
allows the risers to be adjusted all in one
go. Therefore the new Construx stair mould
can really be called fully hydraulic: by
means of horizontal and vertical hydraulic
rams the risers as well as the goings can be
adjusted all together. The new stair mould is
suitable to make stairs with one or two lan-
dings and up to 20 steps. The width of the
mould can be chosen: 1500mm, 2000mm
or 2500mm. The risers have to be in bet-
ween 165mm and 195mm (another mini-
mum or maximum is possible, but always
with a 30mm difference for the sloping
inwards steps), the goings have to be in bet-
ween 220mm and 320mm. The mechani-
cal steps can be equipped with 2 different
types of top elements : normal straight steps
with which you have to cut timber pieces to
form the risers, or the sloping inwards steps
with nose with which you have to use the
metal triangle fillet to fill in the gap at the
base of the tread and rise in the mould.
These top elements are interchangeable
which makes the stair mould a flexible and
profitable piece of equipment. The mould
can be equipped with adjustable and arti-
culating panels on one or on both sides.
Making stair flights with top and bottom
landings has never been this easy. The bot-
tom landing panel is conceived as an exten-
ded first step and can be hydraulically posi-
tioned at the right angle. The top landing
panel can be moved in at any position after
one of the top elements has been removed.
To ease the demoulding, a hydraulic tilting
device can be fitted onto the stair mould.
Next generation staircase moulds
Construx b.v.b.a., 3600 Genk, Belgium
For many years Construx has been one of Belgiums leading mould makers for precast plants. In the very competitive West European market
you can only stand out if you are creative, and that is exactly what the Construx crew is good at. In order to meet the requirements of two very
demanding customers the Construx engineers conceived three completely new staircase moulds: a multipurpose winding staircase mould, a
fully hydraulic adjustable stair mould and an adjustable budget friendly stair mould equipped with a hydraulic hand pump. The existing systems
were outdated because of their complexity and limitations.
Winding staircase before demoulding Winding staircase of 20 steps, ready to pour
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PRECAST CONCRETE ELEMENTS
Winding staircase with 20 steps
Winding stair mould element, straight step to the left and sloping
inwards step to the right
Any type of winding staircase can be made
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CPI Concrete Plant International 4 | 2009 www.cpi-worldwide.com 154
PRECAST CONCRETE ELEMENTS
OMG Prefabbeton purchased a 2500mm
wide and 18 steps long adjustable stair
mould on which stairs with landings of up to
3000mm long can be prefabricated. The
main advantage of this particular mould is
the fact that it suits to make any type of
exceptional dimension of stairs as well as to
make two normal stairs side by side at the
same time.
An adjustable budget friendly stair
mould equipped with a hydraulic hand
pump for OMG Prefabbeton in Dessel,
Belgium
When you make as many stairs a year as
OMG Prefabbeton, most of them are just
straight flights with a width of less than
1500mm. Using complex and expensive
moulds to prefabricate those plain stairca-
ses is not the most economic solution. There -
fore the Construx team developed a budget
friendly stair mould which still does the job.
The horizontal upside down mould is equip-
ped with a hydraulic hand pump to adjust
the horizontal distance in between two
steps. Thus the goings are set and the risers
remain to be adjusted by fixing timber pie-
ces which are made to measure. As with the
above fully hydraulic stair mould the width
of the mould can be chosen: 1500mm,
2000mm or 2500mm. The number of steps
is 20 and top and bottom landings of up to
1500mm can be prefabricated together
with the flights. In the standard setup the
risers have to be in between 165mm and
195mm and the goings have to be in bet-
ween 220mm and 320mm. Other limits are
easily conceivable. There are two possible
features for the finish of the steps: normal
straight steps or the sloping inwards steps
with nose. The simplicity of the concept
makes this type of stair mould very low
priced.
Fully hydraulic stair mould, 18 steps, 2500mm wide, 3000mm long
landings
Hydraulically adjustable and tiltable stairmould, 1500mm wide
Interchangeable top elements
a.) Step 200mm - Riser 165mm
b.) Step 200mm - Riser 195mm
c.) Step 320mm - Riser 165mm
d.) Step 320mm - Riser 195mm
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PRECAST CONCRETE ELEMENTS
Conclusion: A variety of stair moulds
to suit everybodys requirements
Depending on the type of stairs a precast
company may need different types of
moulds. The moment a prefabricator makes
10 flights a day, he will not be able to stick
to one precast system or to one type of
mould. Winding staircase moulds, hydrau-
lically adjustable moulds, ... sometimes it is
even better to use a simple system such as
a side pour mould with inserts. Fitting fixed
steel inserts into a standard 1500mm high
double gang mould is probably the most
cost effective way to prefabricate big series
of straight flights.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Construx b.v.b.a.
Slingerweg 1
3600 Genk, Belgium
T +32 89 328855
F +32 89 328866
info@construx.be
www.construx.be
JUMA Beton n.v.
Industrieweg 6
2490 Balen, Belgium
T +32 14 829706
F +32 14 810261
info@jumabeton.be
www.jumabeton.be
OMG Prefabbeton b.v.b.a.
Zandbergen 112
2480 Dessel, Belgium
T +32 14 320722
F +32 14 320723
www.omgprefabbeton.be
info@omgprefabbeton.be
Adjustable budget friendly stair mould, equipped with a hydraulic
hand pump
Two quadruple side pour moulds with steel inserts
Perfect fair faced finish
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