Not all projects will involve a permanent means of access to maintain the façade. The use of elevated working platforms for example can have far reaching and wider applications in accessing the facade.
Contemporary constructions are built with complex geometries, making it difficult to access certain areas while cleaning. Such buildings require roof cars in order to accommodate multilevel rigging. A motorised roof car system also provides complete horizontal movement via roof mounted track system.
Suspended access equipment, permanent gondolas that are put in permanent cradle, ground up equipment like the aerial platforms… all these are larger varieties of the existing systems.
Today, temporary suspended platforms are more in use in construction and soon bamboo scaffolding will become history, says Khemlani.
Even the ground-up cleaning access systems have received tremendous acceptance, he asserts. “Scaffolding is being replaced with aerial platforms to reach 35m or so. It is actually the visibility of the ground up equipment that is creating demand. This equipment enables speedy access to 20-30m height in just three minutes. The first building to use an aerial platform in India was the Forum in Bangalore. Today, more than 70 such platforms are in operation. India is merging with international practices and it is here to stay.”
For buildings where regular maintenance is required, a powered trolley system offers an economic solution for both window cleaning, maintenance and light repair works. All vertical motions are operated from within the cradle and horizontal and luffing motions are optional from the cradle or from the jib head depending on the type of vertical restraint applied to the cradle.
“The complete outlook of handling a building at a height is changing and that necessitates many installation of access equipment at the time of construction and also for the subsequent use and maintenance,” opines Khemlani.
More and more builders and contractors are looking at the access systems, for it offers a profitable proposition. The pay-back period is not more than the first few years of operations while its estimated operation life is over 20 years. “This has changed the outlook of builders and contractors, who cannot do without mechanisation in high-rise buildings. The change in the nature and attitude towards mechanisation is so much that they have started using the same techniques even in low-rise buildings. This in turn is changing the way they build,” he adds.
With the opening up of the Indian economy and expansion of infrastructure, international architects and contractors have made their way into the country. They have also brought with them the new technique of facades reflecting international trends.
“The front runners look at state-of-the-art and highly functional façade equipment of international standards. Cradle Runways has provided these systems at Chennai TechPark, ITC Gardenia, Bangalore; Nehru hotel, Delhi; Trident Hotel, Mumbai and Oberoi Builders among others.”
At the same time, even though people are opting various access equipment they eventually buy them without realising the limitations and purpose of such equipment.
“People are ignorant and tend to use the equipment for anything and everything. They do not realise that a façade cleaning equipment is for cleaning and not for carrying loads up the building. It’s not a vehicle transport that can be overloaded.”
Quoting an instance, he explained that people carry a pile of grass three times the size of the truck and call it light weight. People overload anything that is mechanised. This gives rise to various safety issues; as such mishandling of access equipment could lead to accident or even loss of life.
“The cradles or the gondolas (word from the East) is a façade cleaning system and can only carry designed load. The Building Maintenance Unit is meant only for maintenance and does not have provision to lift building material or glass. This again could damage the equipment.”
At one of the sites where Cradle Runways has installed a façade system, three workers were spotted carrying a full glass up the cradle. “The system does not permit people standing in the cradle at a height with glass, a drill and over and above with no safety harness. The cradle was lifting 150kg glass, drill machine and other tools and the load was close to the maximum. Additionally, two people were pulling the cradle from the ground applying separate additional pressure. While this use is not what the system was designed for, it is a minor issue compared to what was happening on the terrace. One of the three workers was actually standing on the motor. Obviously no motor is meant for people to stand on and this use was ruining the cradle. The person was not wearing a safety belt and half his body was leaning out of the cradle. Even though we stopped the workers at that moment, this abuse would have continued later. The same motor has now developed a problem,” laments Khemlani.
