Ferrocement machine tool design

Nov 28, 2003 2 Replies
J

Hi all, There was some discussion a while ago about ferrocement in machine tools on this group. I'm now looking into building a specialty machine tool, myself, using this material, but I've been almost completely unable to find engineering data for ferrocement (beams, particularly) online. I'm not "rules of thumb," preferably, but stuff like placement of reinforcement within beams, and the "hard numbers" for typical tensile strength and flexural stiffness. Are there any books that address this application? I've got Blodgett's "Design of Weldments," and "Design of Welded Structures," which are really helpful (for welded steel); are there any similar books for ferrocement design?



Thanks!



-mike


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E

Ferrocement was a hot topic in the '70s, primarily for boatbuilding. Earlier, it had been treated as an architectural material, primarily in Italy, where it was invented.

Civil and architectural engineers seem to have taken up an interest in it again and there has been some technical treatment of it. An architect friend mentioned this book to me last Christmas as the one that's respected in his business. I haven't read it, so I can't recommend it, but it seems to have gotten good reviews:

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Now, that's assuming you're really talking about ferrocement. That's only one of several ways to combine concrete and steel. When it comes to beams, made in small volumes, you may also want to consider post-tensioning. There is a whole concrete post-tensioning institute devoted to it, or there was.

Ed Huntress

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G

Ferocement makes strong, thin fairly inexpensive three dimensional shells if it is done RIGHT but many of the hulls built in the '70s were very poorly executed. It is a lot more labor intensive than most people think. The steel mesh/rebar matrix has to be oil free and bright for the cement to bond to it. A little mill scale is acceptable but absolutely no rust so you don't have a lot of time to get the cement in place once the matrix is built.

It is for shells, not beams. You can build str> Hi all,

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