With more than 67 years of experience in anchoring, Germany-based fischer has emerged the preferred brand for most pre-engineered building (PEB) contractors in the region including Kirby, Mabani Steel and Mammut Building Systems.

“This is the result of the latest innovations in our products, design support, on-site support and quick response. Our customers have shown confidence in fischer and we strive hard to deliver up to their expectations,” says Jayanta Mukherjee, managing director, Fischer Middle East.

The PEB system offers multiple advantages to the end-user. The most notable are low initial investment, fast construction time, low maintenance cost, large clear spans, infinite choice of layouts, inherent resistance to earthquakes, ease of expansion and unique attractive appearance, he says. 

Due to the latest innovation in the PEB sector, the distance between supports can be increased substantially thereby resulting in reduced number of supports. But this results in increased loads on supporting columns, he explains. 

The conventional system of connecting steel columns (H beams or I beams) to concrete is by the use of cast in anchors which are installed at the time of casting concrete. This requires planning and site coordination at the very initial stage while concrete is cast and it is difficult to implement any future changes. 

In modern-day construction, post-installed anchors like fischer’s are gaining more popularity because of flexibility at site and reduced risk for errors and reduced embedment depths. The anchors can be drilled and fixed at the later stage after the concrete is cured completely thereby reducing the chances for coordination mistakes at the site, he says.
 

“But we do face critical challenges in such projects such as reduced edge distances, reduced spacing between anchors and extremely high load reactions on the anchors. Not always can we match the exact dimensions of the baseplate, concrete dimensions available,” he says. 

“But, as a result of continuous interaction with the design and structural team of our customers, we are able to give recommendations at the design stage enabling our customers to make changes in dimensions of base plate, concrete etc.” 

Educating customers about the key principles, design methodology, codes and software by means of Engineering Seminars have also helped customers understand the requirements and concepts of post- drilled anchors, he says. 

As stated by Prof Klaus Fischer, president and CEO of the fischer group of companies: “Human life is more important than making money”. “Hence at fischer we keep safety as one of our main principles. In PEB buildings,” he says. 

When the loads on anchors are very high, fischer suggests the use of chemical anchors. Chemical anchors are very sensitive to the way it gets installed. If the anchor holes are not cleaned in the recommended manner there can be reductions in the load up to 50 per cent.  

“We do not want our anchors to fail. So we provide installation trainings for end-users at site, make them install a few connections and issue installer certificate thereby ensuring that our products are getting installed in the correct manner,” says Mukherjee. 

Testing at jobsite is also important and fischer proves the quality and performance of its products at actual site conditions where it is going to be installed. This has helped the firm build the confidence of contractors and consultants on fischer’s quality because “seeing is believing”. The tests are carried out by fischer’s qualified field engineers and sales team as per international standards. 

“Our wide range of mechanical and chemical anchors enables our team to provide an optimised solution to our customers. By using the latest version of fischer Fixperience anchor designing software, our customers are also able to design anchor connections with utmost ease. With our team of technical engineers, we are able to perform anchor design calculations quickly, saving time for the customer and also ensuring that most of the specified products are available in stock. 

“Our success in the segment is due to coordination of our sales team, technical team and logistics team who work to ensure that customer needs are met efficiently and safely,” he adds.