Event realized for the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2023
WSB and Bentley Systems Offer New Digital Construction Management Service Based on SYNCHRO
Industry partners use ORNL software to trim carbon footprint of buildings
Europe’s first 3D printed office extension is now complete in Austria
Cementos Progreso spearheads use of COBOD’s 3D construction printers in Latin America to solve the housing deficit
North America’s first 3D printed 2-story building erected by nidus 3d in ontario, canada
Expert: Roads need to be ‘smart.’ Here’s why.
DSI Columns® Feature A New System to Provide Maximum Wind Resistance for Homes in Coastal and SPA
DSI’s Westbury Aluminum Railing is a Superior Choice for Decks and Porches
Avvir Announces Enhanced Product Capabilities to Improve Construction Project Management and Analysis
-
Avvir Launches Onsite, Turn-Key Reality Capture Services for the Construction Industry
Avvir, a reality analysis company providing a system of record for buildings to the construction industry, today announced the launch of its newest service, Avvir Onsite. The offering provides end-to-end reality capture services for construction site managers across the country, and allows for the real-time extraction of data from the field for immediate analysis. Avvir’s new Onsite service offers construction managers a one-stop shop for reality capture needs, from traditional stationary 3D Lidar scanning, to 360° photo capture, to drone photography. Additionally, Avvir is one of the only providers of 3D mobile scanning services using the high accuracy NavVis VLX. Mobile lidar scans allow for quick capture of large areas of construction projects and provide significant cost savings and benefits for the project team. Currently, Avvir Onsite’s mobile scanning service is available in the northeast region of the U.S., with plans to expand nationwide later this year. “Avvir provides value to its customers by removing unnecessary barriers in the construction buildout process, and we do that by leveraging technology in a holistic and accessible way,” said Raffi Holzer, CEO and Co-founder of Avvir. “During our conversations with construction teams, we regularly heard that they would love to effectively harness 3D data and AI capabilities, but they didn’t have the means to scan their projects in the field. We realized this was a huge obstacle to fostering more intelligent, data-driven construction sites, so we set out to create a solution for it.” Avvir Onsite’s 3D scanning and photo capture services provide enhanced findings both as a standalone product and in conjunction with Avvir’s existing offerings. This free-flow of information drives efficiency and reduces the risk of inaccuracies on construction sites because of both the high quality and sheer volume of data made available. Construction teams understand the benefits of engaging with services like building information models (BIM) and database projects, though there is still an impediment when it comes to extracting and analyzing the data. Avvir’s suite of solutions integrates seamlessly with existing models and dashboards to get an intimate and complete view of the project at-hand and its nuances, acting as the bridge between the digital and physical worksites. For more information please visit avvir.io
-
EarthCam 4D Brings Construction Digital Twins to Life
EarthCam, the leading provider of webcam technology and services, today introduced EarthCam 4D, empowering virtual design and construction (VDC) teams to overlay and synch live imagery with their digital twins. An intuitive time-line allows users to scroll backward and forward in time to view live imagery in relation to their 4D models. Built on the Bentley iTwin platform, EarthCam 4D augments Bentley Systems’ SYNCHRO 4D models with high-resolution photos from multiple cameras throughout the jobsite, overlaid in precise alignment. Viewers can zoom in and out, and the associated live images remain synched. Unique transparency/opacity and model color adjustments enable new and powerful ways to compare and contrast models with reality over time. “EarthCam 4D is a great and quick tool to help communicate project schedule with our customer, trade partners and public,” said Michal D Wojtak, Mortenson’s Integrated Construction Director for sports and entertainment. “The ability to easily compare current and future states of work is valuable to project leadership teams.” “We are delighted to collaborate with EarthCam, and their EarthCam 4D application, which allows for construction teams to monitor planned construction against actual progress. In addition, EarthCam’s solution integrates time-lapse imaging with interactive 3D models that are tied to the construction schedule data, adding tremendous value to clients,” said Sheena Gaynes, Director, Business Development, iTwin platform, at Bentley Systems. “In doing so, EarthCam joins the growing innovation ecosystem building digital twin applications on the Bentley iTwin platform.” “Digital twins are radically increasing productivity in construction,” said Brian Cury, CEO and Founder of EarthCam. “Thanks to Bentley iTwin, we’re able to merge the highest resolution imagery from our cameras to SYNCHRO 4D models, and build valuable applications to increase our clients ROI.” “The partnership between EarthCam and Bentley is bringing construction digital twins to life by simplifying the visual communication of project status to all stakeholders. Now anyone can compare what is happening on the jobsite to what was planned virtually within a simple web viewer powered by Bentley’s iTwin technology. By mixing 4D models from SYNCHRO with EarthCam’s reality models, all stakeholders on the project can quickly see the progress of the project, identify issues, and keep the project on time and on budget from anywhere,” said Rich Humphrey, VP, Construction, at Bentley Systems. EarthCam 4D is the first solution that fully synchronizes time-sequenced images to 4D planning models - stakeholders no longer need multiple software interfaces and different stored image sources to access this critical comparative information. According to FMI, 13% of working hours are spent looking for project data and information. Having real-time imagery synched with a SYNCHRO 4D model in a single interface provides immediate, real-time evidence of every steel beam placement, and every window installation against 4D models, simplifying project management for SYNCHRO users worldwide. EarthCam 4D will be premiered at Bentley MOMENTUM, the developer showcase for digital twin solutions on January 26th. EarthCam’s Control Center 8 has long been the software of choice among industry leaders for smart project documentation, promotion and security. EarthCam is driving productivity for a more visually informative jobsite, providing camera rentals, same-day delivery and professional installation. EarthCam works with industry leaders around the globe to make construction project management less costly and more efficient using powerful visual data. To learn more about EarthCam 4D and Control Center 8, visit earthcam.net/earthcam4d/
-
IDTechEx Talk Smart Buildings: Another Frontier for the Digital Revolution
Take a look around your room. It is likely full of sophisticated digital technology: computers, smartphones, an internet-enabled TV, and even a smart speaker. However, the building itself has not really changed since the introduction of electrical wiring and central heating many decades ago. Smart buildings aim to bring digital technologies into the fabric of the building, rather than just to objects within it. They will utilize a wide range of emerging technologies, such as semi-transparent photovoltaics on windows, moisture sensors for leak detection, and printed heaters with wall panels. Combined with changes to building construction, such as greater use of prefabricated panels with integrated electronic functionality, incorporating technologies such as these promises smart buildings that facilitate predictive maintenance, are more energy-efficient, and are responsive to the needs of occupants. [Digital leak detection] Anyone that has had a water leak at home knows that it is extremely annoying and expensive, with walls, ceilings, and flooring all needing replacement. Furthermore, the affected area is out of action while everything is dried using extremely noisy fans and dehumidifiers. Clearly, a technology that reduces the likelihood and severity of leaks would bring clear benefits to home and business owners, along with insurance companies. Printed moisture sensors are a promising potential solution, which if integrated into walls and floors would be able to detect leaks at a very early stage and alert the owner of the building. One such approach, targeted primarily at bathrooms, has been developed by the Swedish company InviSense. A printed RFID antenna coil is coated with a moisture-absorbing material. The resonant frequency changes in response to moisture, which can then be detected by an RFID reader. While testing of leaks behind tiling can be performed non-destructively, it does not provide continuous feedback. An alternative approach to leak detection is being developed by UK company Laiier. It offers low-cost capacitive sensors, which are made from carbon-based inks and can be produced using conventional graphics printers. The thin-film sensor format enables them to be placed underneath appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, boilers, and pipes, or even under flooring or within walls. The sensors are connected to the cloud, and hence able to provide the property owner with an alert when an increase in moisture is detected, enabling repairs to be performed before a leak becomes significant. [Integrated heating, lighting, and wiring] Housebuilding techniques have not changed substantially in many years, with most houses still being constructed on-site using conventional building materials. Plumbing and electricity are installed during the construction process, requiring skilled manual labor during every build. While most cars have been produced on a production line with extensive automation for many years, houses are still essentially handcrafted. There is thus an excellent opportunity to simultaneously reduce construction costs and provide additional value to the building’s occupants by integrating functionality into building materials. Promising examples include incorporating electrical heaters into wall panels, thus removing the need for unsightly free-standing radiators. Electrical switches, wiring, lighting, and other sensor types could also be installed into wall panels prior to installation, reducing the need for individual fixings that increase costs and create visual clutter. Technologies for possible integration into smart buildings. Source: IDTechEx [Improved energy efficiency] Heating and powering homes more efficiently is crucial in meeting CO2 emission targets since at present around 30% of emissions in developed countries come from domestic households. While clearly greater adoption of established technologies such as thicker wall/roof insulation is important, there is also plenty of scope for emerging technologies to contribute. Photovoltaic solar panels, currently installed in around 3.5% of UK homes, are a continuing target for innovation. One emerging approach is the construction of tandem photovoltaic cells, which utilize an additional light-absorbing layer to harvest solar energy more effectively. Oxford PV are a leading player here, with its ‘perovskite-on-silicon’ tandem architecture demonstrating higher efficiencies (29.5% in a recent laboratory example). It is currently developing a production line to mass-produce these high-efficiency tandem cells. However, rigid roof-based solar panels are not a viable option for every building. Another alternative is semi-transparent solar cells, which can be applied to windows as thin films. Although less efficient, since clearly less light is absorbed, semi-transparent solar cells enable existing windows to be utilized for energy harvesting. A further development, currently in its early stages, is photochromic photovoltaics that would absorb a higher proportion of sunlight on sunny days. [Another frontier for the digital revolution] Buildings, both domestic and commercial, have been slow to benefit from the digital revolution thus far. There are many high-tech items within buildings, but generally speaking, little modern technology is integrated within the fabric of the buildings themselves. This is set to change over the coming years, with ‘smart buildings’ that enable predictive maintenance, efficient construction, and have sensing/heating/lighting/energy harvesting integrated into the building materials from the outset becoming increasingly common. [Your guide to emerging technologies] IDTechEx offers an extensive portfolio of technical market research reports covering many of the technologies required for smart buildings. These include printed/flexible sensors, smart city materials, electronics reshaped, perovskite photovoltaics, smart glass/windows, materials opportunities in emerging photovoltaics, and many more. All IDTechEx reports cover the current state and expected future developments, both in terms of technical capabilities and commercial adoption. Granular forecasts segmented by technology and application assist with planning future projects, while multiple company profiles based on primary interviews provide detailed insight into the major players. Also included in the reports are multiple application examples, SWOT analysis, and technological/commercial readiness assessments. Further details and downloadable sample pages for each report can be found on the IDTechEx website or by contacting us at Research@IDTechEx.com.
-
Avvir Launches Avvir Accelerate to Support AI-Backed Planning in the Construction Industry
Avvir, a reality analysis company providing a system of record for buildings to the construction industry, today announced the launch of Avvir Accelerate. The new product is a software solution that offers planning and consulting services to help users at every stage of the project lifecycle, whether it’s from the early programming stage pre-RFP, the design development phase, or the pre-construction and construction phases. This service came to life because Avvir realized that gathering documentation, understanding design intent, federating trade-specific BIM models and translating that information into a comprehensive schedule and cost estimate is an uphill battle every project team faces. With Avvir Accelerate, customers get help streamlining their entire project with Avvir tools and best practices for finding, communicating, and acting on project information more efficiently, allowing them to gradually build up confidence and mastery to continue autonomously. In Q1 of this year, Avvir announced the close of its Series A fundraise. Since the raise, Avvir has utilized the funds to drive significant product upgrades and new capabilities, fundamentally enhancing the construction project management process. In addition to announcing Avvir Accelerate, the company launched several product upgrades aimed at creating a new level of analysis for the built world including; the addition of a 4D dashboard, updates to its robust 3D Viewer, and 4D/5D analysis that eliminates the need for weekly LiDAR scans. These product enhancements allow construction industry professionals to break down and effectively analyze a project’s progress and status through improved tracking and reporting capabilities, increasing accuracy, safety and timeliness for construction projects. “Our goal at Avvir is to create a turnkey solution for construction industry leaders that informs and supports the entire lifecycle of a project,” said Raffi Holzer, CEO and Co-founder of Avvir. “Everything that we accomplished this year is another step in that direction, allowing us to go far beyond providing only a point solution, and instead offer a full suite of tools needed to empower construction professionals with intelligent, data-driven job sites that enable them to reliably deliver on schedule, within budget and safely.” Without a unified data source to keep plans up-to-date and reflective of on-site activities, construction professionals can end up with an incomplete view of the project at hand, leading to mistakes, engineering flaws, and wasted resources. Avvir’s revolutionary platform enables complete knowledge of a project at any time by harnessing the power of reality capture data. Beta user Kevin Marren, Superintendent at AECOM, said, "I could move faster, giving updates to the project team on a weekly basis so they could proactively get ahead of predicted clashes that had to be addressed in the field." As 2021 comes to a close, Avvir is set to launch additional upgrades to its technology, including enhanced BIM integrations, updates to the user interface, and new machine learning progress analysis. These innovations are designed to provide automatic status updates across platforms and prioritize immediate tasks and actions. Looking ahead, Avvir will continue to augment its analytical technologies to increase prediction accuracy, decrease the time it takes to receive results, and accelerate the development of new analyses and features.
-
Smart Cities: Paradise or Punishment?
In the last century, the sweeping architecture of the new cities Brasilia and Canberra was found to be soulless by those required to live there. Come the weekend, Brasilia emptied as those required to work there decamped to the fun of Rio de Janeiro. Nowadays many call the equivalents smart cities because the computer industry is putting sensors everywhere for people control. Makes them happy, right? The antidote is the new IDTechEx report, “Smart City Materials, Systems, Markets 2022-2042”. The 310-page report explains that it does not have to be that way. Commercially oriented and newly prepared by Ph.D. level IDTechEx analysts worldwide, it identifies gaps in the market, potential partners, lessons from success and failure, business cases. Raghu Das, chief executive of IDTechEx advises, “The massive new challenges of desertification, rising sea levels, starvation, increasingly violent weather, dysfunctional national governments and the accelerating move to cities can be tackled on a human scale. Priorities need to be entertainment, inclusiveness, safety, zero-emission and affordability from the independence of water, food and energy supply, new faster, inclusive forms of multipurpose transport and appropriate city location and layout.” Enablers include 100% electrification startling advances in multifunctional smart materials such as metamaterial cooling. Examples include 3D printed graphene concrete in new tunnels under London and solar bodywork of smart shuttles. Renaming a video doorbell as Internet of Things will not change the fate of mankind but a seawall against rising sea levels that is made of the new “everlasting” concrete and makes clean water and considerable electricity just might. Long-life beats recycling any day. Metamaterial reprogrammable intelligent surfaces may be more key to the success of 6G Communications than big data. Compact food production in cities replaces traditional farming with its problems of manpower, emissions, water pollution, space, cost, security, and transport. Understand the relevance of saline and vertical farming, solar greenhouses, xeriscaping, cultivated cellular meat, and milk. Aquaponics grows vegetables and fish together, agrivoltaics marries electricity and food production and bioswales prevent flooding, clean water, grow food. Biocrete architecture nourishes plants. Food production delightfully integrates into living space. Ironically, Disney EPCOT Florida is nearer to an ideal smart city than most of the dehumanized ones now being erected with massively wide streets, empty skyscrapers, no center, and no soul. The report compares many, finding another irony. Most of the really-impactful, imaginative approaches are not taking place in new cities but in London (graphene concrete tunnels, every new house must have an electric vehicle charger), Beijing (robot restaurants), and New York (East River tidal power without tidal barrage). Appealing newcomers are mostly tiny – like Toyota Woven City with its multipurpose robot shuttles – but could have lessons for the needed large new cities. Best practice is identified and new ideas are proposed in the report. The Executive Summary and Conclusions is sufficient for those in a hurry. Infograms interpret pollution, desertification, sea-level rise, responses including food, water, energy independence, resilience, conservation, zero-emission, electrification. Here are required smart materials, infrastructure, transport, multifunctional composites, ultra-high-performance concretes, new air taxis, robot shuttles, energy harvesting, off-grid city electricity, indoor food production. It summarizes supporting ICT, IOT, 6G, sensors, case studies, and best practice. 25 of its 57 dense pages are new roadmaps and forecasts, mostly 2022-2042. Chapter 2 is a smart cities appraisal – old, new, and planned – illustrated with new images and commentary, lessons of failure. Chapter 3 extensively covers reinvented concrete and smart materials for smart cities. Most attention is given to cement and its derivatives such as concrete, the most-used man-made material in cities because they are more of the problem (10% of global warming) and more of the solution (many routes to decarbonization, higher strength very long life means less needed and least carbon of all, 3D printed buildings and more). However, 10 of its 42 very detailed pages cover the emerging multi-mode roads, sidewalks, parking areas, and airport runways, new metamaterials, city cooling materials, and more with a key startup appraised. The 46 pages of Chapter 5 concern food independence for cities – why, where, how, when, best practice, making the required electricity where it is needed, and new ideas with many actual layouts and successes. It ends with four pages on the robotics for the trend to unmanned facilities. Water independence takes 12 pages as Chapter 6. Raghu Das of IDTechEx points out, “Cities may never practice independence in food production or even electricity and drinking water but resilience against the much tougher challenges ahead requires them to move towards independence as a capability. Even tiny Singapore now targets one-third of food made internally.” Many smart cities target layouts that require no more than 15 minutes to get from home to work or shops. However, we shall still want to get to the historic city center, the countryside, the next cities and attractions, and that is why Chapter 7 concerns new forms of zero-emission transport eliminating congestion and getting even the poor or disabled to get to precisely where they want as with robot shuttles on plazas paths and into buildings, Hyperloop at airline speed, vertical takeoff air taxis and more. What is doomed to fail? What is promising and when? Given their relative importance, the 43 pages cover mainly new city land and air travel but touching on marine. The report finds independence of electricity production, zero-emission, to be easier for most cities than the independence of food and water because so many technologies are now available for purchase with many more coming soon. Das explains, “A windy city may have very large wind turbines where one revolution charges a house for three days but the primary trend is making electricity where it is needed, notably with solar everywhere from windows to paths, walls, vehicles, and park benches. A new challenge arises from solar weak in winter so we cover energy storage delaying electricity supply up to seasonal.” The 56 pages of this chapter embrace options for cities from both batteries and non-battery storage. Learn mostly about generation from water, wind, and daylight in many new forms but also see the place of hydrogen. For more information on this report, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/SmartCities, or for the full portfolio of Smart Cities research available from IDTechEx please visit www.IDTechEx.com/Research/SmartCities
-
New Passive Cooling for Buildings, Discussed by IDTechEx
With global warming kicking in and rising sea levels displacing millions to arid regions, there needs to be much more cooling of buildings. Species extinction, more widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas – these and other devastating climate impacts are accelerating and are bound to accelerate in the decades ahead, according to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which promises a major analysis in 2022. The proliferation of air conditioning has issues of cost, materials, maintenance, life, and making more heat than cold. Passive cooling means no power is needed. It is widely deployed in the form of translucent multilayer polymers facing the sky and convective chimneys in traditional African buildings. However, they have their limitations. Two new passive options need to be welcomed that use readily available, non-toxic substances - metamaterials and unprecedentedly white paint reflecting maximum sunlight away from a building. [Beautiful, cool, 3D printed buildings] Low-cost, rapidly erected houses are needed for people everywhere, including those millions about to be displaced by climate change and for the third world. One of the fastest and cheapest methods is 3D printing, as detailed in the IDTechEx report, “Concrete and Cement Reinvented: Growing the Market, Decarbonising 2022-2042”. Typically, they are ugly and if they are to be painted anyway, why not use a paint that cools? [Whitest paint in the world] The whitest paint in the world has been created in a US laboratory. It is now in the Guinness World Records book as the whitest ever made. The scientists claim that it is so white that it could eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning. However, analysts at IDTechEx caution that, not being adjustable, it is better regarded as part of the toolkit. “When we started this project about seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind,” said Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. Making it really reflective also made it really white. The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared heat. It absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, so a surface is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power. A roof area of about 100 square meters could add cooling power of 10 kilowatts, more powerful than air conditioners used by most houses but localized. Typical commercial white paint gets warmer rather than cooler. Paints on the market that are designed to reject heat reflect only 80% to 90% of sunlight and cannot make surfaces cooler than their surroundings. Two features make this paint ultra-white: a very high concentration of a benign common chemical compound called barium sulfate – also used in photo paper and cosmetics – and different particle sizes of barium sulfate in the paint, scientists at Purdue said. Researchers at Purdue have partnered with a company to put this ultra-white paint on the market. [Metamaterials] Metamaterials are composites that contain repetitive patterns tailored to manipulate electromagnetic and other emissions in a manner previously impossible. For the coming commercialization of electromagnetic versions, see the IDTechEx report, “Metamaterial and Metasurface Markets Electromagnetic 2022-2042”. Many are transparent and one of these has been researched that may assist with the problem of silicon and some other photovoltaics needing cooling to maintain efficiency. The combination of high haze, low visible absorption, and high thermal emissivity makes these nanocellulose metamaterials interesting for use as coatings for solar cells, for which the combined set of properties may enhance device light absorption, making more electricity while also improving lifetime and efficiency by passive radiative cooling. Different colors are possible and, for buildings, there is the prospect of better solar cladding and maybe metamaterial-covered windows cooling passively. To be precise, passive radiative cooling draws heat from surfaces and radiates it into space as infrared radiation to which the atmosphere is transparent. However, the energy density mismatch between solar irradiance and the low infrared radiation flux from a near-ambient-temperature surface requires materials that strongly emit thermal energy and barely absorb sunlight. The researchers embedded resonant polar dielectric microspheres randomly in a polymeric matrix, resulting in a metamaterial that is fully transparent to the solar spectrum while having an infrared emissivity greater than 0.93 across the atmospheric window. The metamaterial consists of a visibly transparent polymer encapsulating randomly distributed silicon dioxide SiO2 microspheres. For those interested in the impending $40 billion market for transparent electronics, see the IDTechEx report “Transparent Electronics Materials, Applications, Markets 2021-2041”. When backed with a silver coating, the metamaterial shows a noontime radiative cooling power of 93 watts per square meter under direct sunshine. Further, the developers demonstrated high-throughput, economical roll-to-roll manufacturing of it - vital for promoting radiative cooling as a viable energy technology.
-
Digital Twin urban planning technology can yield $280bn global windfall for cities
Digital Twin technology is expected to lead the way in transforming our cities, savings billions in running costs, and assisting towards net-zero targets. A new report by global tech market advisory firm ABI Research, says the cost benefits alone could be worth $280 billion by 2030 through using Digital Twins for more efficient urban planning. "Digital Twins will become the ultimate tool for city governments to design, plan and manage their connected infrastructure and assets in an efficient and cost-effective way,” said Dominique Bonte, Vice President End Markets at ABI Research. “Cost savings can be obtained in key areas, such as energy and utilities, transportation, safety and security, and infrastructure (roads/buildings). However, urban digital twins also offer many other advantages in terms of supporting and improving sustainability, circularity, decarbonization, and the overall quality of urban living.” The report details potential efficiencies across a wide range of asset categories and use cases: • First-time suitable designs of buildings and other physical infrastructure avoiding expensive modifications after completion • Energy-efficient building designs maximizing solar capacity and yielding lifetime energy savings • Resilient and safe infrastructure designs reducing policing and emergency response costs • Optimized designs of utilities, streetlight, and surveillance networks to achieve the same coverage target with less CAPEX • Design of COVID-19 proof buildings to deliver healthcare savings • Digital Twins enable efficient eGovernment through seamless exchange of data with citizens for mediation purposes. One of the leading suppliers of urban Digital Twin technology is Chicago and London-based Cityzenith, which featured in this research alongside Siemens, Microsoft, and Engie, and recently joined the World Economic Forum's Top 100 Global Innovators community. Cityzenith founder and CEO Michael Jansen commented after reading the report: "As an architect by trade, I know how inefficient and over budget the built environment has been over the last 30 years or more, often causing delays in completion and inefficient use of materials due to the industry's lack of data and technology. “It's a huge global problem as we seek a more efficient and sustainable model for our urban planning, and construction must catch up with the pace of emissions reduction in other industries such as manufacturing. Fortunately, Digital Twin technology is accelerating to provide much-needed solutions to these issues; modelling by software like our SmartWorldOSTM can manipulate huge amounts of data to enable smooth and accurate 'right first time and on time' construction on new projects and help retrofit older construction to cut emissions now and in the future. "During the next 12 months, we will partner with at least ten international cities, to integrate our SmartWorldOSTM Digital Twin platform. We have also signed a major international contract to use SmartWorldOSTM to manage carbon emissions in other cities as part of the Race to Zero and movement towards a more sustainable and cost-effective energy transition." Digital Twin technology has been named one of five top tech growth sectors, including nanotechnology, genomics, biotechnology, and AI. According to the World Nano Foundation, these five sectors will enjoy a combined growth of more than 400% over the next five years. The Digital Twin market alone is predicted to grow from $3.1bn to $48.2bn by 2026, according to MarketsandMarkets. Cityzenith’s pioneering work has been recognized by an international World Smart City Award from the Open Business Council and status as a Top 10 Digital Twin provider by Manufacturing Technology Insights in the last year. Bonte at ABI Research concluded: "While the cost-saving advantages of Digital Twins allow cities to achieve fast ROIs, the increasingly complex nature of connected and smart urban infrastructure, especially in view of future smart urban concepts, will simply mandate the deployment of Digital Twins as critical, holistic management tools, similar to the role they play in other industries like manufacturing.” To hear more from Cityzenith CEO Michael Jansen on how Digital Twins can save our cities billions in running costs, please join an upcoming FREE webinar, ‘Investing in an AI Technology Platform for Sustainable Cities' taking place virtually on Tuesday the 24th August at 13:00 CT, please sign up https://event.webinarjam.com/register/61/xqokkfl4
-
New launch in construction reinforcement technologies from Kordsa: Kratos Structural Reinforcement
Kordsa’s Kratos Macro and Micro synthetic fiber reinforcements stand out as the first Turkish product in the over 500 million-dollar sized international fiber reinforcement market. As the company expanded its Kratos product range in 2020, with the addition of Kratos Rebound Minimizer, a shotcrete additive that reduces rebound in tunneling and mining applications, and Kratos Pool Fiber used in pool plaster applications, became a preferred solution partner of many prestigious projects with its cost effective, durable and efficient product range. In parallel to its "Inspired, we reinforce life” vision Kordsa has recently added to its Kratos product portfolio 4 Structural Reinforcement products after a comprehensive R&D period. Structural Reinforcement is critical both for Turkey, and in terms of overall sustainability. Reinforcing with Kratos Structural Reinforcement products saves both time and cost compared to demolishing and rebuilding. In this respect, it stands out as an environmentally friendly and sustainable solution. If technically compatible, compared to steel or reinforced concrete jacketing, fabric reinforcement applications provide a more advantageous solution minimizing the loss of field. Kordsa held a digital launch for the new Kratos Structural Reinforcement Products on May 31st. The meeting, started with the opening speech of Kordsa CEO Ali Çalışkan, and continued with the illuminating presentation of Kordsa’s Strategy and Business Development Director and Construction Business Unit Leader Fezal Okur Eskil about Kordsa and the Construction Business Unit. Following her presentation, Prof. Dr. Alper İlki, from Istanbul Technical University, Civil Engineering Faculty Structural and Earthquake Engineering Department, shed light on Structural Reinforcement Technologies in Turkey and in the world and explained their significance. Following Kordsa’s Global Technology Director Devrim Özaydın's speech titled Global Technology and Construction Reinforcement, in which he also touched on Kordsa’s technology-focused innovation perspective, Sales and Marketing Manager M. Yasa Kılınç, Technology Manager Uğur Alparslan, Account Manager Sebla Demir and Project Leader Tuluhan Ergin from Kordsa Construction Reinforcement business line, gave a detailed presentation including key technical specifications, usage areas and market position of Kratos Structural Reinforcement Technology. The digital launch meeting ended with the speech of the Chairman of the Earthquake Strengthening Association (DEGÜDER) and Chairman of the Board of Artyol Mühendislik Sinan Türkkan on Turkish structural reinforcement market and DEGÜDER's activities.
-
Toray Launches Torayvino Branch as Japan’s First Water Purification System Usable with Your Choice of Faucet
Toray Industries, Inc., will start selling the Torayvino® Branch household water purifier exclusively in Japan today. The company debuted the Torayvino brand in 1986 when it brought out a countertop water purifier employing hollow fiber membrane filters. The Torayvino Branch is Japan’s first water purification system to allow switching between tap and purified water by simply lifting a faucet lever. To date, consumers have faced limitations in choosing faucets for under-sink water purifiers or faucets with built-in purifiers. They can install the Torayvino Branch under sinks to work with innumerable faucet designs, features, and brands. They can use their existing faucets or foreign-branded ones. Since the Torayvino Branch is installed under the sink, it does not spoil the design of the entire kitchen. This product adopts the SKC88.X cartridge, whose water purification capacity, cost, and size match most contemporary lifestyle needs. While compact, this cartridge is an industry leader. It can remove 17 impurities of JIS, has a fast flow rate, and can purify 4,000 liters of water. It is priced at ¥9,130, including tax. It is designed for annual replacement, for a monthly running cost of about ¥700.
-
My Electrical Expert Offers a Range of Electrical Services Backed By Years of Industry Expertise
My Electrical Expert, the electricians with an impeccable reputation for delivering high-quality electrical solutions, is committed to its core vision. The electrical expert makes sure they offer the best possible solutions through their team of well-trained and highly skilled electricians, technicians, and engineers. “We have a reputation for having the best expertise in the industry and enjoy a high level of trust and confidence of our clients across the United States,” says the spokesperson for the company. “We carry our industry expertise as a badge of honor. We also pride ourselves on our honesty, efficiency, reliability, safety, and transparency whenever we do business with residential as well as commercial clients.” As the best-known residential electrician in the country, My Electrical Expert has been serving the needs of homeowners for decades. They are co-ops and condominium experts and equipped to handle projects of any size, from townhomes to multi-family apartment buildings. My Electrical Expert employs a team that is OSHA certified and has passed the testing and training standards as set by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. All their projects are handled with safety-first culture and within a completely safe working environment. The commercial electrician services by My Electrical Expert are handled by the most experienced electricians in the team. They make sure that apart from the functional aspects, the aesthetics side of every project is also considered while executing the work. The team provides clients detailed information about the specialized electrical needs for their business and collaborates with them at every stage of the project. My Electrical Expert also specializes in industrial-grade services. The leading industrial electrician employs licensed engineers, certified electricians, and the latest technology to diagnose problems and provide the most appropriate solutions. They can handle even complex electrical issues with ease. Residents and commercial business owners can rely on this emergency electrician to attend to any emergency electrical needs and problems quickly. The company offers a 24/7 emergency response system precisely to deal with such unforeseen problems and situations. My Electrical Expert can mobilize entire divisions or deploy a specialist team, as the situation demands, to address electrical problems effectively and quickly. Customers can call their office for phone consultation and on-spot assessment and get a ballpark estimate for their electrical work. The company deploys only NATE-certified technicians and makes use of the latest equipment to ensure high-quality electrical solutions for all their clients. For more information, visit myelectricalexpert.com
-
Waylay Provides Missing IoT Link for Smart Building Automation
Waylay today announced its low-code automation platform for smart buildings, in response to increasing market demand for new intelligent building automation applications that rely on sensor data and data from building management systems. According to ABI Research (*), the automated building market has traditionally focused on four conventional sectors: HVAC, lighting, access control and fire & life safety. Today, new emerging applications in space management, environmental monitoring, asset management and cleanliness & hygiene management are being offered. Together, these new solutions will grow at 32% CAGR over the next 8 years to create US$2 billion in software and services revenues by 2026. Waylay delivers its IoT automation platform to manufacturers of building equipment, building management service providers and software companies to deploy these new intelligent building applications and realize a swift response to changing circumstances, legislation and customer needs. Next-gen smart building applications Waylay’s automation platform complements ongoing IoT initiatives and processes real-time sensor data, from both legacy systems as well as new sensors, to add a new layer of business intelligence to smart buildings. Waylay’s data analytics fuels new solutions for optimized facility management, preventive & predictive maintenance of HVAC systems, failure detection, occupant safety, asset and energy optimization, alarm response and optimized field service teams to streamline business processes and create new, high-margin revenue streams. Automation platform kickstarts new smart building scenarios The Waylay smart building automation platform no longer requires the typically complex mix of IT development skill sets to create, productize and maintain new use cases. The low-code development environment with drag & drop rules engine visual programming interface allows cross-organization collaboration. Data scientists can efficiently put their algorithms in production, while maintenance managers can develop and validate their own information, decision & control flows and tweak and maintain them as needed. None of this requires lengthy IT development cycles. The automation platform for smart buildings hosts a set of use-case rule templates that kickstart the creation of new scenarios and that can be adapted for every specific building, structure or environment. This results in a quick go-to-market of new smart building applications and minimal in-house resources and skills to maintain the solutions platform. “Waylay has consistently proven to offer the best in class IoT automation and analytics platform,” said Piet Vandaele, CEO of Waylay. “Our drag & drop low-code approach increases innovation velocity and data scientists or domain experts no longer have to wait for traditional R&D cycles to finish. This becomes critical when legislation changes or circumstances like COVID-19 require quick responses from smart building solution providers. The Waylay platform brings democratization of analytics to smart buildings and therefore higher ROI to IoT data in smart buildings.”
-
Sumitomo Electric Completes the Construction of Japan's Largest Wind Farm "Wind Farm Tsugaru"
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has completed the construction of the largest wind farm in Japan, "Wind Farm Tsugaru," which was ordered by Kajima Corporation. Wind Farm Tsugaru, with a total output of 121,600 kW, is the largest onshore wind farm in Japan (as of April 2020), established in Tsugaru City, Aomori Prefecture by Green Power Tsugaru GK, a group company of Green Power Investment Corporation. After about two and a half years of construction, it went into commercial operation on April 1, 2020. Sumitomo Electric was in charge of the design, manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment, such as underground power transmission and distribution lines and substation equipment, jointly with its group companies, Nissin Electric Co., Ltd. and Sumitomo Densetsu Co., Ltd. The Sumitomo Electric Group contributed to the optimization of equipment design by selecting the most efficient transmission voltage, determining appropriate equipment specifications through system analysis for addressing high harmonics and overvoltage issues, and conducting in-depth surveys for selecting appropriate routes for underground pipes. In addition, the Group installed a 34-km-long power transmission line, which is unparalleled for an ultra-high voltage (154 kV) transmission line, successfully within the scheduled period by utilizing its extensive technical expertise and construction skills, consequently completing construction in March 2020. The Sumitomo Electric Group aims to provide total solutions for all electric power processes that link power plants and users, such as power transmission, distribution, reception, transformation and storage, thereby contributing to the introduction of renewable energies and the creation of a smart energy society, both of which are anticipated to accelerate in the future.
-
Bentley Systems Announces Availability of OpenSite Designer
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software and digital twins services for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced the availability of OpenSite Designer, its integrated application for civil site and land development workflows across conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design phases. OpenSite Designer advances BIM through comprehensive 3D site design, spanning reality modeling of site conditions from drone imagery and scans, geotechnical analysis, terrain modeling, site layout and grading optimization, stormwater drainage modeling and analysis, underground utilities modeling, detailed drawing production, and enlivened visualizations. OpenSite Designer enables rapid and iterative conceptual design, leveraging contextual information obtained through point clouds, reality meshes, GIS, and other sources to enhance understanding of existing site conditions. Interoperating with PLAXIS and SoilVision, Bentley’s geotechnical engineering solutions, site plans can be enhanced with new information about the active properties of soil including bearing capacity, stresses, and displacement. With OpenSite Designer, users can create intelligent 3D models containing site information, terrain data, parking lots, building pads, driveways, sidewalks, parcel layout, and related site features. During preliminary design, the site engineer can complete and subjectively improve the layout while relying on further automated optimizations, which respond to the engineering changes. To complete the project’s digital workflows, OpenSite Designer fully supports the site engineer’s detailed design including the production of all required project deliverables. For many site engineers, OpenSite Designer will advance civil site design from traditional 2D plans and profiles to a 3D modeling environment, assuring more efficient analysis of hydraulics, geotechnical, geospatial, and earthworks. Incorporating the analytics optimization of Bentley’s SITEOPS technology, OpenSite Designer is the successor to the site design capabilities of Bentley’s PowerCivil, topoGraph, GEOPAK Site, InRoads Site, and MXSite. Dustin Parkman, vice president, civil infrastructure design integration for Bentley Systems, said, “The collaborative nature of digital workflows converging analysis and simulation with design and modeling is exemplified in our new OpenSite Designer. We’re excited that for the first time there is a complete solution for site design and land development to accelerate site engineers going digital!” Michael Semeraro, Jr., PE, PP, managing principal, EVP, Langan International, said, “Langan is always looking for opportunities to differentiate ourselves from competitors with technical excellence and expertise. We have depended on SITEOPS for site optimization, earthwork analysis, and cost identification in our planning phase. We now look forward to using OpenSite Designer to also produce our detailed designs and documentation.” Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, said, “Interestingly, after three decades of leadership in civil engineering software scope advancement, the culmination is OpenSite Designer – a very accessible and widely-needed application which combines complete fitness for purpose with unprecedented ease of use and adoption. In effect, it brings to bear what we consider to be the indispensable characteristics of infrastructure digital twins – reality from imagery, veracity from simulation and optimization, and fidelity to design intent across revisions. Both site engineers’ work satisfaction, and their site designs, will be vastly enhanced by the breakthroughs in OpenSite Designer. Try it!”
-
Bentley Systems Announces the Availability of OpenBuildings Station Designer
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software and digital twins services for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today announced the general availability of OpenBuildings Station Designer, a new multidisciplinary application for the design, analysis, visualization, and simulation of new or operating rail, metro or other transit stations. Advancing beyond generic BIM applications, OpenBuildings Station Designer was developed specifically for rail and transit station modeling, with asset-specific content and workflows. OpenBuildings Station Designer streamlines and automates design collaboration design between architectural, mechanical, electrical, and structural disciplines sharing modeling, clash resolution, and documentation capabilities. OpenBuildings Station Designer incorporates LEGION, the industry-leading simulation software, acquired by Bentley late in 2018, for fully modeling pedestrian traffic to optimize footfall, wayfinding, crowd management, safety, and security. With the integrated capability to model and simulate pedestrian scenarios, OpenBuildings Station Designer helps designers to improve the functional use of space, passenger throughput, and the pedestrian experience. By virtue of Bentley’s open modeling environment, OpenBuildings Station Designer enables iterative digital workflows spanning OpenRail and OpenRoads to assure comprehensive and coordinated engineering modeling of transportation assets and modes. Within Bentley’s OpenRail Connected Data Environment (CDE), the Components Center cloud service contributes to station project quality and integrity through pre-populated digital components which include signaling equipment, escalators, turnstiles, public address systems, signage, kiosks, and more. OpenBuildings Station Designer breaks down barriers among stakeholders and increases the value and fitness-for-purpose of design deliverables through its: included LEGION pedestrian simulation; integration with OpenRail for rail design; integration with OpenRoads for roads design; clash resolution; multi-discipline documentation; ready-to-use catalogs for functional spaces and equipment; and enlivened visualizations. Santanu Das, SVP for Bentley’s design integration business unit, said, “OpenBuildings Station Designer reflects our goal of advancing BIM through digital twins, by including within its multi-discipline design scope the integral simulation of pedestrian traffic outcomes. With such insight, the designer can anticipate pedestrian bottlenecks and modify the layout to improve the station efficiency and safety, ultimately improving the passenger experience. Accordingly, we expect OpenBuildings Station Designer to also benefit existing rail and transit stations for renovations and upgrades, increasing their capacity and throughput.” Mike Nicholson, associate for Steer Group, said, "For over a decade Steer has successfully been delivering a wide range of pedestrian modeling studies around the world utilizing LEGION. We are now looking forward to using the full BIM capabilities of OpenBuildings Station Designer."
-
IDTechEx Research: Smart Cities Without Infrastructure
A large proportion of the cost, disruption, pollution and exposure to natural disasters in a city would be eliminated if there were no infrastructure. Imagine no sewage or gas pipes, electricity poles or even sidewalks from which people leap into the face of approaching traffic. Poor sanitation such as leaking pipes kills half a million children under the age of five annually and costs $200 billion a year in healthcare costs and lost income worldwide. We have seen a beginning of independence with houses ceasing to require telephone wires because mobile phones are used. However, a city where buildings are fully independent seems like a pipedream. Until now. The smart materials and robotics approach to smart cities is far more powerful than the initial IT and sensor centric approach and it is cracking the problem. Passivedom Corporation sells a residence that grabs its own water from the atmosphere and treats its own sewage, its electric power being from its own solar panels. Separately, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates unveiled a futuristic toilet in November 2018 that does not need water or sewers and uses chemicals to turn human waste into fertilizer. His foundation has committed $200 million and expects to spend the same amount again before the toilets are viable for widespread distribution. "The current toilet simply sends the waste away in the water, whereas these toilets don't have the sewer," Gates said. "They take both the liquids and solids and do chemical work on it, including burning it in most cases.” During a speech he held up a jar of human faeces to illustrate the importance of improving sanitation. "It's a good reminder that in there could be 200 trillion rotavirus cells, 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 100,000 parasitic worm eggs," he said. He expects the market for the toilets to be over $6 billion by 2030. There is big money in smart cities based on smart materials. Solar roads that self-deice and charge vehicles at speed are being installed in China in 2022. They cost millions of dollars per kilometre so this will become another multi-billion dollar zero-emission business with good payback. The IDTechEx report, “Smart City Opportunities: Infrastructure, Systems, Materials 2019-2029” covers independence of food, power and water for cities and even the buildings within them. It gives many ways a city can produce hundreds of megawatts itself. Megawatts from the new solar windows and cladding on a high rise gives affordable, secure, clean, electric cooking, HVAC, lighting and services not hostage to utility price rises. Since most cities are on a large river or the sea, boost that with the new plug-and-play wave, tidal and tethered-drone wind power with minimal intermittency and therefore minimal energy storage. Combinations will be tuned to demand profile through the day – far more efficient than energy storage. Little or no poisonous, flammable, large, heavy, short-lived battery is needed. Fit-and-forget clean supercapacitors often suffice. Indeed, there are now two routes to supercapacitors hitting the energy density of successful lithium-ion batteries in 2012 as explained in the IDTechEx report, “Supercapacitor Materials and Technology Roadmap 2019-2039”. The Facebook-funded smart city by Toronto will not have sidewalks because only gentle robot shuttles and people will pass. Most new smart cities target zero-emission energy independence, ban private cars (a dangerous waste of space) and provide free public transport. Transport is pure electric with energy independence thanks to solar bodywork and wind turbines erecting when stationary. An interim stage is intermittent rails, overhead catenary and solar bodywork doing top up charging. Buses and trucks need one fifth of the battery then and they can take more passengers and cargo. Does installing a hydrogen grid for fuel cells at buildings and in vehicles fit in the trend to little or no infrastructure? Well, no but monster Class 8 trucks and light rail have a window of opportunity for fuel cells charged only at end of route, provided we start making the hydrogen without emissions, such as “free” manufacture when wind turbines and solar are over-producing. One may even wonder if independent clean buildings can reverse the move to cities if country living becomes more viable, luxurious and easily connected to city life by low-cost, maintenance-free, energy-independent aircraft and road transport. In the meantime, the electric vehicle business is changing rapidly. In ten years from now the largest output will no longer be electric bikes but robot weeders, mostly powered by on-board solar: no infrastructure again. See the IDTechEx report, “Electric Vehicles for Construction, Agriculture and Mining 2019-2029”. The IDTechEx Show! in Berlin on 10-11 April 2019 combines 8 co-located conferences and 1 exhibition covering Internet of Things, Electric Vehicles, Energy Storage, Sensors, Printed Electronics, 3D Printing, Graphene & 2D Materials, 3D Printing and Wearable. The conferences feature sessions on Smart City and Smart Buildings, Supercapacitors, Progress to Off Grid Energy Independent Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure, and much more. Find out more and register with the latest attendee discount at www.IDTechEx.com/europe Learn more about further IDTechEx research at www.IDTechEx.com/research or contact the IDTechEx Research team at research@IDTechEx.com
-
-
