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Tag: Forschungsanstalt

  • Viboo wins Empa Innovation Award

    Viboo wins Empa Innovation Award

    Every two years since 2006, Empa has honored in-house innovations or successful technology transfers from science to industry with the Empa Innovation Award. This year, the CHF 5,000 prize went to the Empa spin-off viboo , the research institute said in a statement . The young company based in Dübendorf has developed a self-learning algorithm that uses weather and building data to calculate the optimum energy use of a building several hours in advance.

    The algorithm developed by Felix Bünning and Benjamin Huber together with Empa Senior Researcher Matthias Sulzer in Empa's Urban Energy System Lab has already been tested in pilot tests in the NEST innovation building and in an Empa administration building. It has been shown that the approach can save around a quarter of the heating energy, according to the statement.

    For the application, only the analogue thermostats have to be replaced by intelligent thermostats. Here, viboo is already working with Danfoss and wants to get other manufacturers of such thermostats, such as ABB and Schneider Electric , on board for further pilot projects. Huber wants to reciprocate the award with a contribution that “empa will get through the coming heating period well”, the viboo co-founder is quoted as saying in the press release.

  • Drone swarm prints building materials in flight

    Drone swarm prints building materials in flight

    An international research team from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research ( Empa ) has developed a swarm of cooperative drones that are used in construction. The example is the cooperation between bees and wasps. As Empa reports , the flying robots print out 3D materials in the air under human control and place them in the designated places. The performance of these BuilDrones is recorded and monitored by a second fleet, the ScanDrones. They also specify the upcoming production steps.

    Empa also demonstrates in a video that this is the first time that such a detailed 3D print has been carried out by a free-flying robot. The specialist journal “Nature” published the study by Professor Mirko Kovac’s team from the Materials and Technology Center of Robotics online on September 21 and made it the cover story of its latest issue of September 22 .

    The so-called aerial additive manufacturing is designed in such a way that the drones can adapt their activity to the different geometries of the structure during the construction process. They act autonomously during their deployment. A human controller observes the process and makes adjustments as necessary based on the information provided by the drones.

    “We have demonstrated that the drones can work autonomously to construct and repair buildings, at least in the laboratory,” Kovac is quoted as saying. This could make it easier to work in hard-to-reach areas such as high-rise buildings. According to Empa, the experts now want to work together with construction companies to validate the solutions developed in practice and to develop new repair and production options.

  • Empa proposes a plan for building renovation

    Empa proposes a plan for building renovation

    The Dübendorfer Urban Energy Systems Laboratory of the Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt ( Empa ) has developed measures to reduce the greenhouse gases of the 1.8 million buildings in the country. The laboratory wants to show what the appropriate steps are and in which order they should be taken, it says in a message . The goal is a decisive reduction in CO2 emissions for heating and cooling in order to achieve Switzerland's net zero target by 2050. If the ecological renovation of the building stock progressed at the current pace, it would take another 100 years, Empa calculates.

    Led by Kristine Orehounig, the researchers used data mining to divide all residential and commercial buildings in Switzerland into over 100 archetypes, depending on the year of construction, heating type, location and number of users. Then all of them were checked for their suitability for photovoltaics and connection to a heating network.

    According to Empa, this sorting work has shown that it is worthwhile to start renovating the roofs and windows of older buildings particularly quickly. This should be followed by the renovation of heating systems in almost all house types. It is important to replace fossil fuels as quickly as possible with photovoltaics on roofs and facades. The research team recommends generating heat using heat pumps and biomass heating. "If the proposed measures are taken," believes Kristine Orehounig, "the greenhouse emissions in Switzerland's existing building stock can be reduced by 60 to 80 percent".

  • Empa is replacing bitumen in road construction with string

    Empa is replacing bitumen in road construction with string

    Researchers at the Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt ( Empa ) are currently examining a new method for stabilizing the amount of stone in road construction. Specifically, according to the press release, it is about replacing the bitumen binding agent in the production of the driving surface. Asphalt consists of stones of different shapes and sizes and only becomes a surface that can be used for roads when it is stabilized with the help of bitumen.

    Bitumen causes environmental problems. Air pollutants are released during production from crude oil and later during use. Asphalt is also prone to cracks and deformations and impermeable to rainwater, which pollutes the environment.

    The two Empa researchers Martin Arraigada and Saeed Abbasion from the concrete and asphalt department at Empa are currently implementing a method known from art for the production of road surfaces in a test arrangement. In such art objects, stone steles have been used, which are stabilized by a weave of twine and withstand loads of up to 20 tons at a height of 80 centimeters.

    In the experiment, an electronically controlled robot arm applies a string to a stone layer in a specific pattern. By “interweaving” the stones are fixed in five layers in their position in the “road bed”. In tests, these were already as strong as conventional bitumen asphalt under loads of half a ton. Inexpensive twine was used, such as are conventionally used for tying up packages.

    The trials have not yet led to a ready-to-use product that could be used in road construction. The basic work, however, provides a lot of innovation potential in order to get closer to a recyclable and perhaps rollable road surface using simple means, according to the Empa announcement. A video of the procedure can also be viewed on the website.

  • NEST is planning a new STEP2 unit

    NEST is planning a new STEP2 unit

    A new unit will move into the Dübendorfer NEST , the research and innovation building of the Eidgenössischer Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt ( Empa ) and Eawag , the ETH Domain's water research institute. It bears the name STEP2 . According to a press release by Empa, two new floors are currently being planned on the existing NEST building for this innovation workshop.

    These are as forward-facing as the NEST itself: a spiral staircase in the shape of a spinal column from 3D printing will connect the two new floors. A ribbed filigree ceiling requires around a third less material than a conventional one, and an efficient building envelope should ensure optimal comfort. Further information on these and other innovative construction details as well as regular information on the creation of the unit are available on the STEP2 website .

    The project itself was initiated by BASF. Together with numerous other partners from science and industry, the STEP2 unit will work “purposefully” towards marketable, sustainable solutions for building envelopes, energy systems, digital and industrial production and the circular economy. “This interdisciplinary collaboration is intended to ensure that the leap onto the market can ultimately succeed as quickly as possible,” says Enrico Marchesi, Principal Innovation Manager at BASF, the main partner of the new unit.

    The project team, according to the announcement, is currently completing the preliminary project. The planning of the construction should start at the beginning of 2021. Completion is planned for summer 2022.