Jacob Wolff, Daniel Willis, Tom Tang

i. Introduction to formwork
• Importance of formwork: Economical considerations
– Definition of formwork
– Quality of formwork
– Formwork Life Cycle
i. Introduction to formwork
• Importance of formwork: Economical considerations
– Formwork, also called “moulds” or “shuttering”
– Reasons why concrete structures are generally avoided
– Formwork greatly affects the final appearance of the
finished structure
– Formwork is a large proportion of the total cost of a
structure
– The ultimate economical success of formwork lies in the
ease with which it can be stripped
– Formwork should be designed in the office and not on
the construction site.
ii. Traditional and common formwork
• Wood formwork
– Wood formwork is the most traditional formwork
– System is generally built of lumber or a combination of
lumber and plywood system is generally built of lumber
or a combination of lumber and plywood
– Common and easily obtained timber for formwork is pine
(Norway or American Southern Pine). Its easily worked
and cheap when compared to other woods
– The strongest timber formwork is American pitch pine or
Southern long leaf pine
– Wood products are the most widely used material for
formwork
ii. Traditional and common formwork
• Wood formwork
– Wood formwork is the most traditional formwork
» Disadvantages of wood formwork:
1. High labor costs: labor costs
2. High waste
3. Limited number of reuses
4. Require high quality labor force and adequate
supervision
5. Limited spans (Hanna 33-34)
» Advantages of wood formwork:
flexibility, economy, and availability
ii. Traditional and common formwork
• Steel and aluminum formwork
– Steel & Aluminum Formwork: are often favored over
wood formwork because of the greater speed of stripping
the formwork, the forms may be reused many times over,
and because less physical material is required because
of its greater strength.
– Steel formwork span longer and are more durable than
wood
– aluminum and steel forming systems are more
expensive, but safer, than the old system of plywood and
three by fours.
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Glass reinforced plastic formwork
– Glass-reinforced plastic formwork may be used for
complex shapes and special surface features.
– Found increasing use because of their strength, light
weight, and high number of re-uses.
– Produces high quality concrete finishes (Hanna, 23).
– Problems include attack by alkalies in the concrete and
form expansion because of exposure to hot sun
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Flying formwork
– Called “flying” because they are flown from story to story
by a crane.
– They are built in "typical" span lengths in order to provide
continual reuse in a variety of jobs.
– Advantages: Fabrication on the ground for higher
productivity, stripping as one integral unit reduces
stripping costs, They allow for plenty of working space
below the trusses, Costs are lower when 10 + reuses are
available, They reduce floor cycle and construction time
– Limitations: Difficult to handle on windy days, not used
on flat slab with drop panels around columns, building
must have an open façade.
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Slip Formwork
– Slip forms are another type of early removal system
using materials, which are continuously re-employed.
– Three types of jacks--hollow screw jack, hydraulic jack
and pneumatic jack--are used worldwide to "slip"
formwork for a wall section to higher levels as the
concrete cures.
– The screw jack is manually operated and used in areas
of the world where mechanization is limited.
– The hydraulic and pneumatic jacks are fully automated
moving continuously as concrete is pumped into place.
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Jump Formwork
– Jump forms are another type of concrete formwork,
which moves as concrete cures to create a reusable,
economic system.
– Used when no floor is available to support wall formwork
– Consist of 2+ strongbacks
– Jump forms also have a lifting mechanism but it is used
differently from that of the continuous pours made with
slip-forming.
– These are designed to swing away from the structure
(like a door opening) for cleaning and oiling with
subsequent reattaching to the wall as it increases in
height.
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Shotcrete
– a process in which compressed air
forces mortar or concrete through a hose
and nozzle onto a surface at a high
velocity and forms structural or non-
structural components of buildings.
– Shotcrete may be applied to surfaces
using a dry-mix or wet-mix method.
– No forms or one sided forms are used.
– Because forms are not always required,
shotcreting is a cost-effective method for
repairing vertical and overhead surfaces.
Advances in equipment and materials
have made wet-mix shotcreting a
practical repair option
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Cobiax (Bubble Deck)
– Biaxial system that employs hollow
rubber spheres to displace the concrete
that has no structural benefit.
– The result is a floor that weighs up to
35% less than an equivalent solid floor.
– Being a modular system, cobiax can be
assembled on site or produced and
bought as a semi-precast slab.
– When integrated into the whole structural
frame solution, cobiax delivers many
benefits structural benefits and saves
money.
 iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Cobiax (Bubble Deck)
– Advantages
biaxial structure
longer span- no beams
weight savings-fewer supports- high earthquake resistance
retrofit-change of use
reduction in construction time

Actual benefit in % savings when compared to solid flat slab.

Concrete in floors 32%
Floor reinforcing steel 20%
Concrete in foundation 20%
Columns 40%
Beams and Joists 100%
Deck construction time 35%
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Cobiax (Bubble Deck)
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Cobiax (Bubble Deck)
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF)
– Insulating concrete formwork (ICF)
otherwise known as permanently
insulated formwork (PIF) is an insulated
in-situ concrete system of building that is
quick to construct and offers levels of
performance significantly better than that
available from slower, more traditional
approaches to building.
– ICF are based on large, hollow
lightweight block components that lock
together without intermediate bedding
materials, such as mortar, to provide a
formwork system into which concrete is
poured.
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF)

• Building with Insulating Concrete

Forms is gaining momentum
because of its unparalleled
comfort, energy efficiency, and
safety ratings at comparable
costs.
• ICF building materials can
achieve an R-Value of up to 40
and save 80% on heating and
cooling costs.
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF)

•Insulating Concrete
Forms are infinitely
versatile, allowing design
and construction
flexibility

•ICF forms are manufactured from

high density, biologically safe, fire
retardant, type II/III expanded
polystyrene. The Quad-Lock Building
System will not support combustion.
The fire resistance of a 6" thick
finished Quad-Lock wall is 4 hours.
iii. Innovations in concrete formwork
• Tilt-Up Concrete Forms
– Wall sections are cast on site and tilted
up into place.
– In this case the tilt up wall is also an ICF
product by Quad-Lock Concrete Building
Solutions
vi. Fabric Formwork
iii. Fabric Formwork
History
– Erosion Control and pond liners – initial practical uses for
fabric formwork in the 70s
– Geotextiles – some of the first patents for fabric formwork
– Miguel Fisac – used formwork for textured walls.
vi. Fabric Formwork
iii. Fabric Formwork
The 80’s and the 90’s
– Kenzo Unno – in-situ cast concrete walls
– Rick Fearn – Canadian inventor of fabric formwork
techniques which was sold to Fastfood Industries.
– Mark West – artist, architectural educator, and builder
invented a series of techniques for constructing fabric-
formed walls, beams, columns, slabs, and panels. Now
the director of C.A.S.T. at University of Manitoba’s Faculty
of Architecture.
vi. Fabric Formwork
iii. Fabric Formwork
vi. Fabric Formwork
iii. Fabric Formwork
• Characteristics
– Surface – permeable membrane allows air bubbles and
excess water to bleed out, leaving a cement-rich paste at
the surface of the form. Eliminates the need for additional
treatment such as sand blasting, acid etching, veneers…
Loss of excess water through the permeable fabric
produces a stronger and more durable “case hardening”
of the concrete through a significant improvement in its
compaction and water-cement ratio near the surface.
– Geometry and Structure – Textiles resists only tension
while concrete resists compression. The structural
opposites work together to make an efficient formwork for
concrete.
– Lightweight Formwork – 100 to 300 times lighter than
conventional wooden forms. Best formwork fabrics are
also 1/10th the cost of formwork plywood per unit area.
Increases in material and structural efficiency are the
result of a fundamental paradigm shift in formwork
structural strategy. First major advancement in concrete
formwork technology since plywood after WWII
vi. Fabric Formwork
iii. Fabric Formwork
• Sustainability (construction)
– The Cost for fabric formwork is 1/10th the cost of plywood
formwork. This lowers the Embodied Energy of the
building. Embodied energy is the energy consumed by all
of the processes associated with the production of a
building, from the acquisition of natural resources to
product delivery. This includes the mining and
manufacturing of materials and equipment, the transport
of the materials and the administrative functions.
Embodied energy is a significant component of the
lifecycle impact of a home.
vi. Fabric Formwork
iii. Fabric Formwork
• Sustainability (structure)
– Remarkable structural advantages are obtained by the
use of flexible textile formwork and its structurally opposite
capacities to concrete: The fundamental physical law that
tension and compression forces exist as geometric
inversions of each other. The natural gravity laden
deflections produced by textile formworks can be used to
produce sophisticated three dimensional compression
shell and vault structures through the simple act of
inversion – a process inherent to precast production.
– Even when geometric inversion is not possible such as
cast-in-place members, structurally efficient variable
section members can be easily formed using fabric
formwork. Structural members with a lower dead weight
(higher efficiency) are produced by varying the cross-
section of a structural member to follow the path and
distribution of the forces inside it. This is notoriously
difficult to do using traditional panelized, rectangular “box”
mold, and relatively simple to do using flexible formworks.
vi. Fabric Formwork
iii. Fabric Formwork
vi. Fabric Formwork
iii. Fabric Formwork
• Future Projections
– New ways to think about concrete
• Construction – lightweight concrete
lends itself to different construction
methods
• Form – more efficient forms mean
lighter structures and a move away
from prismatic or rectilinear design
• Industry – These efficiencies could
alter the industry of concrete
design. Integration with existing
projects could yield significant
gains.