In steel construction, the time factor plays one of the main roles; no construction project can do without taking this difficult factor into account. This relationship is particularly pronounced in the area of complex projects in regions that are far away from urban centers or the production sites of steel construction. This is the case with the ESA construction site in Kourou, French Guiana. Here, interruptions due to production-related tolerance problems are particularly dramatic from a financial and economic point of view. This is the second assignment for our assembly team in South America.
Therefore, time-saving methods for tolerance compensation are needed to reduce the effort and time required for assembly in Kourou. This is exactly what is possible with our gap compensation material MM1018, which was the first of its kind to receive general building approval from the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt) in January 2013. It has since been used in over 1000 structures.
Our MM1018 metal polymer was used in French Guiana to compensate for the tolerances of the steel structure, the base of the rocket launch pad and the booster filling device. The booster filling device must have a friction-locked connection to the steel substructure and be perfectly positioned so that the filling process can be carried out without any problems during operation of the launch pad.
A previously manufactured adapter plate was aligned on the steel structure, the gap created here was first sealed all around with MM1018 Seal #2108 and then filled with MM1018 Liquid #1866 by means of gap injection. To save time, injection and ventilation openings were already planned in advance in the adapter plate.
After successful injection and curing of our MM1018 liquid lining sheet, the connections were removed so that the steel fabricator could perfectly align the boost filling device and install the friction-locked pressed adapter plate. This procedure meant that the very tight schedule for this demanding and very complex project could be adhered to.