Prestressed Technology: eco-friendly & efficient

Prestressed Technology: eco-friendly & efficient
“Prestressing helps in producing sleeker sections, thereby ensuring environment friendly design and economy in construction. The aesthetic appeal is quite soothing to the society at large,” says G.R. Chitnis, Managing Director, Dynamic Prestress
Tell us in brief about the concept of Prestressing.Prestressed concrete is a method for overcoming concrete’s natural weakness in tension. It can be used to produce beams, slabs and bridges with a longer span than is practical with ordinary reinforced concrete. Prestressing tendons (generally of high tensile steel cable or rods) are used to provide a clamping load which produces a compressive stress that balances the tensile stress that the concrete compression member would otherwise experience due to a bending load. Prestressing can be accomplished in three ways: pre-tensioned concrete, and bonded or un-bonded post-tensioned concrete.
How can prestressing help in making concrete more sustainable? The goal of sustainability is that structures built can be sustained for the foreseeable future. Environment, economy and society are the three pillars of sustainability. The engineers and architects should ensure that these three pillars should remain balanced and healthy. The designers of prestressed structures need to select the materials which are environment friendly. In the era of global competition, economy is the need of the hour. Prestressing helps in producing sleeker sections, thereby ensuring environment friendly design and economy in construction. The aesthetic appeal is quite soothing to the society at large. The prestressed technology is largely used these days for mega structures, in infrastructure as well as for commercial buildings, like malls, show rooms, IT parks, etc.
What all products do you offer in the prestressing technology?Dynamic Prestress offers a wide range of products and services to the construction industry. Over the last two decades, several products like prestressing anchorages, equipment, HDPE & metallic ducts, void former, bridge bearings etc. are developed and installed in several prestigious projects in India and abroad. Our Engineering and R&D Dept at Nasik offers tailor made solutions for the prestressed industry. We have been involved in various Flyovers and for prestressed nuclear containment, aqua-duct, power projects, cement silos etc.
Dynamic Prestress has developed and tested entire range of anchorage systems and is technologically at par with international trend. We have also developed the state-of-the-art lifting and shifting jacks and have successfully completed the repairs and rehabilitation of RCC and prestressed structures. We keep upgrading our products and are continuously developing new products indigenously for import substitution.
What all diverse projects have you handled during the years? Any memorable ones among them?As such there are several memorable projects during my career of 25 years service to the prestressing industry. Predominently, I would like to cite – the designing and application of prestressing technology used by me to correct the alignment of a big intake well of NTPC, Simhadri, near Visakhapatnam. This well was tilted and the strata were very difficult. This well was lowered uniformly using prestressed anchors and 12 jacks, each of 350T capacity. We could rectify the tilt and sink of the well to the required level.  
We had developed tailor-made equipments for Nuclear Power Corporation for their containment structures, in order to ascertain the magnitude of prestressed force in the cables during the 40 years life span of the structure. This development was tested and the suitability and accuracy of the equipment was appreciated by the clients. 
You have also done projects outside India, what differences did you find while doing projects there vis-à-vis in India?I have been associated with several international projects in the Middle East, Far East and in Europe market. It’s a great fun working with international consultants and big construction MNCs. They invest lot of time in planning and meticulously work out details of each and every activity and anticipate likely challenges that may occur during the course of execution. Once the execution starts, then there is no looking back. Thanks to the advance planning, our project activities were completed well before the scheduled time of completion.
In India, there is lot of flexibility and unanticipated hurdles, particularly in terms of land acquisition, finances, political interference, delays in approvals of drawings, sudden price escalation etc. etc. I am sure with the realisation of our weaknesses and exposure due to globalisation, things in India will change in due course. The Indian market itself is quite big and has tremendous potential. The clients and consultants are open to new ideas and accommodative considering the practical difficulties at the execution level.
Tell us something about ERP program that you have implemented. How has it helped the company?ERP program implemented by us has helped several of our depts., in optimum utilisation of resources, controlling the inventory, speedy approvals from various depts., of the organisation and controls and checks on various activities at the office level and at project sites. It ensures quicker processing of information and reduces the load of paperwork. It also services the customers efficiently by way of prompt response and follow up.
The database not only becomes user friendly but also helps to do away with unwanted uncertainty. ERP is suitable for worldwide operations as it encompasses all the domestic jargons, currency conversions, diverse accounting standards, and multilingual facilities. In short it is the perfect commercial and scientific quintessence of the verse “Think Local. Act Global”. The ERP program also helped us in obtaining and implementing ISO standards.
How do you envisage the growth of the prestressing technology in the future?Prestressing technology has a great future not only in India, but all across the world. Thanks to Mr. Eugenie Freyssinet, the French engineer, who conceptualised the prestressing technology way back in the year 1911. The civil engineers worldwide have expanded the application of the concept to various types of structures like bridges, flyovers, aqua-duct, lifting of structures, heavy load handling, soil stabilisation etc.  
The prestressed technology has great future ahead not only in India, but abroad as well. The requirement of aesthetically constructed cable stay bridges, segment-wise constructed metro projects, and long span flyovers in cities is ever increasing. Special projects like monorail, dedicated freight corridor, port connectivity, prestressed silos, commercial buildings etc. will all need prestressed technology to give cost effective, elegant and long lasting structures for the infrastructure industry.
What are your future plans for the company, where do you see yourself 5 years down the line?Dynamic Prestress has seen steady growth in its turnover over the last decade. The management intends to strengthen the existing business lines as well as diversify into related areas of construction industry and as such there is a good scope for growth for our company.
The expansion in the production base and installation of CNC machines in the production units will empower us to deliver services promptly and at a competitive price for not only for Indian market, but for the overseas market as well. Our mission is to build a strong future by assuring long lasting structures and provide innovative tailor made solutions for the clients. The vision of Dynamic Prestress is to be customer oriented committed to total customer satisfaction. We intend to expand our presence in all the continents and hope to be recognised as an innovative and empowered team, creating value and providing improvised services.

24