Journal of the Association of Engineers, India

J. P. Kaushish ¹, Bhagwan Dass ¹, M. S. Kalra ¹, S. M. Singh ¹

Affiliations
1 Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee-247667 (U.P.), IN

Abstract

Investigations carried out at CBRI indicate that good quality sheets and boards for various applications in a building can be made from woodwool using portland cement as a binder. Inorganic binders such as magnesium oxychloride cement and gypsum have been used extensively for making woodwool and plaster boards but they exhibit poor resistance to water. Portland cement bounded organic aggregates when pressed in the form of boards and sheets constitute a good building material with higher strength and better resistance to water attack. Another material, coir waste obtained as a byproduct of coir industry, has ben used with advantage in making corrugated roofing sheets and it is estimated that these sheets can be made commercially available at a price about half to that of AC sheets. A technology has been developed to satisfactorily produce sheets and boards making effective use of some of the agro-based products like coir waste and woodwool. A semimechanised plant has been designed, fabricated artd set-up at the Institute. Successful trials of making sheets and other products have been completed. An estimate indicates that a capital investment of Rs. 8.5 lakh is required to set up a plant to produce about one hundred corrugated sheets of size 2mX Imx 7m in an eight hour shift.

The present paper describes the production process of making sheets and boards from coir waste or woodwood. Salient features of various equipment involved in the plant are also discussed. An estimate of capital investment for the plant has been given and the aspect of profitability high-lighted.

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S. M. K. Chetty ¹, J. P. Kaushish ¹, S. S. Wadhwa ¹

Affiliations
1 Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, IN

Abstract

With the increasing rate of population, the housing problem in the country has become quite acute. The present building construction activity which is based mostly on traditional construction techniques and materials has not been able to keep pace with the fast speed with which urbanisation and industrialisation is taking place in the country. Ind ustr ial development and the resulting demand fo r skilled and unskilled labour with better prospects have been quite instrumental in adversely affecting the growth of traditional construction. Sometimes, use of partially prefabricated components have also been made along with the traditional construction for effecting saving in time and labour. Full prefabricated buildings have also come up at certain places.

To meet the housing problem the building industry has to orient its efforts in two main directions, namely:(1) Improvements of existing building techniques (2) Large scale industrialisation of buildings. For both these aspects, mechanisation has to be introduced in building industry in one form or the other. The scope of application of mechanical equipment in building industry appears to be extensive. This paper describes the various developmental works carried out by the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee with a view to introduce mechanization in the traditional construction technique, material production and in the construction of large scale industrialised buildings.

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