Siemens - More light for final assembly
Siemens AG, which has its headquarters in Berlin and Munich, is one of the world's largest and most historic companies in the field of electrical engineering and electronics. The company was founded 160 years ago and today provides customers in around 190 countries with innovative technologies and comprehensive expertise. The Siemens Group is active in the Industry, Energy and Healthcare sectors.
The Industry Sector and its products and solutions address industrial customers from the fields of production, transportation and building systems. It is made up of six divisions, including the Mobility Division. With its Complete Mobility approach, the division is pursuing the goal of networking various transportation systems with one another in order to move people and goods around efficiently. This approach combines the competences of signalling and control systems for rail and road traffic with solutions for airport logistics, postal automation and rail electrification, as well as rail vehicles for local, regional and long-distance transportation.
Renovating old wired glass structures Trains have been assembled at the historic Krefeld-Uerdingen site for over 50 years now. During the course of thorough renovation work that was being carried out on the building, the adjacent roofs of the two assembly halls were also renovated, including their saddle rooflights. Over the years, these old wired glass structures had developed leaks. The total roof area to be renovated covered 15,500 m2. The building owner commissioned architects BKR from Essen to plan the new roofs, whilst F.-W. Niemann GmbH Bedachungen, the installation specialist from Bocholt, was awarded the contract to supply the new roofing membrane. ESSMANN GmbH from Bad Salzuflen was responsible for the overall coordination of activities between those planning the work and those actually carrying it out. The core business of ESSMANN has always focused on skylight domes and arcade rooflights. Technically advanced, efficient daylight systems enable natural daylight to be used in the best possible way, with functionality playing a very important role. Very few can match ESSMANN when it comes to the three central elements of modern flat roof design - light, air and safety. The daylight specialist underwent restructuring in 2007 and is accomplished in planning renovation projects. In this project for Siemens AG in Krefeld, the roof had to be renovated whilst production was ongoing, using special procedures and paying particular attention to static requirements and the demands of precautionary fire protection as per DIN 18232.
Installing arcade rooflights without bringing the assembly hall to a halt Since the roofs had to be renovated whilst the assembly halls were still operational, detailed schedules were drawn up for erecting scaffolding on the relevant roofs and for removing and installing each individual arcade rooflight. Work on the roof had to be coordinated with the assembly processes carried out in the halls below. Building work started in April 2006 and was to be completed in April 2007.
Contractors organised the dismantling and removal of old materials during the week and installation work was carried out at weekends during a time period that had been agreed with the production department. When no assembly work was being performed, the roofers exposed the front sides of the roof structure and inserted planks that were secured using special hinged platforms. The planks were then masked with a special foil. For additional protection, the roofers nailed chipboard onto the special foil, thus ensuring that during production, which started up again each Monday, no dirt particles could find their way into the final train assembly area as a result of the dismantling work.
Tents were erected over the old bent saddle rooflights, with openings for the two front sides, to reliably prevent water getting inside the building and also to protect the working area from wind and bad weather.
Adapting two different roof superstructures
The halls have two completely different structures: Whilst Hall 11 A consists of a steel construction with a trapezoidal profile cover, Hall 11 B is comprised of a reinforced concrete frame construction with a roof structure made of aerated concrete elements. The new substructure and roof superstructures were both adapted in light of these facts. The entire roof layer of Hall 11 A consists of a steel support, the trapezoidal profile cover, a vapour barrier of 140 mm Rockwool mineral wool insulation and a single layer of Icopal roof sheeting. The roof structure of Hall 11 B consists of a reinforced concrete support, aerated concrete boards, a vapour barrier of 120 mm Rockwool mineral wool insulation and a single layer of Icopal roof sheeting. In order to achieve a uniform roof under layer, the curved structure of the arcade rooflights was adapted to the existing structural grid of the halls. The ESSMANN system of arcade rooflights type 940/10 was chosen for the Krefeld reference property. A total of 41 new arcade rooflights of the same type, but in varying widths and lengths, across the entire surface of the roof ensure that a huge amount of incident daylight can enter the halls. Nine of the arcade rooflights measure 3.1 m x 55 m, eight others are 4.5 m x 55 m, and the remaining 24 measure 4 m x 24 m (width x length in each case). All the arcade rooflights are also fitted with natural smoke and heat extraction systems (SHE) type F6 with thermal/pneumatic activation and some with ventilation motors too. This provides the building owner with adequate fire protection in accordance with applicable standard DIN 18232 and also with optimum aeration and ventilation conditions for his hall at any time of the year.
More daylight better performance
The dirty, old wired glazing meant that lighting conditions within the halls were patchy, with the result that all the lights throughout the halls had to remain switched on during working hours. Following the renovation work, Siemens now has assembly halls that are flooded with daylight and which offer the best possible work stations from an ergonomic point of view. In normal daylight conditions, there is no need for any additional electrical lights at all.
