Innovation Award of Excellence: DokaXact
Christopher Lewis
Engineering Manager
Doka GmbH, Chicago
Dan Zvinca
Business Development Manager
Doka GmbH, Vienna
Enabling Accurate Formwork Positioning with a Sensor-Based Solution
DokaXact is a tool for surveyors and crews that allows site teams to quickly and precisely plumb and align wall formwork used with climbing systems. It is the first interactive, sensor-based solution that enables accurate positioning of wall formwork elements for high-rise concrete cores.
Used for the first time at the Elephant Park Project in London, the product went through a multi-year development phase and was extensively tested internally and externally. It consists of a wireless centralized processing unit, which communicates with multiple sensors attached to defined surveying points of the wall formwork. The sensor system is accurate down to within 2 millimeters, therefore allowing the structure to be built more easily within the predefined structural tolerances. This provides certainty for designers of high-rises that are already in the planning stage. The expectations on the precision of built structures will continue to rise, especially as concerns the precise positioning of prefabricated concrete elements with respect to the building core, or the installation of vertical transportation systems. As a result, time-consuming finishing work and resulting expenses for subsequent trades are reduced, and need no longer to be considered in planning.
By giving site crews more autonomy when plumbing and aligning formwork, this process yields up to 75 percent savings in surveying services, as the majority of plumbing work can be undertaken without the need for a surveyor. Digitizing this process also allows for seamless documentation that can be accessed by defined user groups, regardless of time and location.
