2016 IACDS Annual Meeting

International Association Moves Forward with New Purpose

The 2016 Annual Meeting of the International Association of Concrete Drillers and Sawers (IACDS) was held April 16-17, in Munich, Germany. Over 25 delegates from France, Germany, Japan, Liechtenstein, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States were in attendance, all with the common aim of promoting the concrete sawing and drilling industry.

The meeting began with a networking activity at the booth of the German sawing and drilling association, Fachverband Betonbohren und -sägen Deutchland e.V., during the Bauma 2016 trade show. It was here that the president of the German association, Thomas Springer, was presented with a commemorative plate by current IACDS President Julie White. The plate recognizes the work of IACDS and German Fachverband past president Otto Alte-Teigeler of Germany, who passed away recently.

The following day, delegates gathered for the association’s Annual Meeting, which included opening remarks from White, a series of informative presentations and an insightful roundtable. Martin Goedickemeier of Hilti, Inc., gave a presentation on Temporary Fixation of Diamond Cutting and Coring Equipment—Recommendations and Load Considerations During Operation based on mounting and anchoring best practices. And further presentation titled Understanding the Business Models of the Industry was given by Donat Fritsch of NESTAG. In addition, an open roundtable took place that gave the delegates the chance to raise a number of important subjects and learn from the successes and failures of peers from around the world.

Diamond Award
Another highlight of the IACDS Annual Meeting was the Diamond Award 2016 ceremony. First held in 2004, the Diamond Award is an internationally recognized competition devised to demonstrate the professionalism of concrete cutters and improve their visibility around the world.

Swiss company Diamantbohr Group was presented with the top Diamond Award for its work on the Pendulum Drilling for Monitoring the Emosson Dam project. The contractor was instructed to drill holes to a depth of 28 meters (91.9 feet) with a 160-millimeter (6.3-inch) diameter in the dam. The specified tolerance was less than 2 centimeters (0.8 inch) in the X and Y axes. Based on the specified drilling depth, this is equivalent to a deviation of less than 1 millimeter (0.04 inch) per meter of the hole. A chrome steel pipe was then cast into the hole and was used to house a measuring device.

Other projects presented with Diamond Awards were Demolition of Ro-Ro Ramp at Mahon’s Harbor by Spanish company Thayr Demolicion Tecnicas SL and Cutting of Bored Piles Ø 1300mm, 15m Under the Water Level by Diatec Betonspezialabbruch of Germany. Thayr was tasked with making holes Ø 150 millimeters (6 inches) in diameter through a 400-millimeter-thick (15.8-inch) slab on a concrete pier before slab sawing 4 by 4-meter (13.1 by 13.1-meter) square sections of the slab for removal. The second phase involved the cutting of bracings and pier caps with a wire saw before two cuts were made on each pile underwater, one at 7 meters (23 feet) below the surface and the other at 15 meters (49.2 feet) below.

Diatec was tasked with drilling 139 piles Ø = 1,300 millimeters (51.2 inches) deep in an open excavation pit measuring 160 meters (524.9 feet) long, 20 meters (65.6 feet) wide and 15 meters (49.2 feet) deep in groundwater. The piles had to pass an integrity test, as specified by the client. In order to perform the test, all piles had to be cut. A custom wire sawing setup was fabricated to cut each pile down until a sound sustainable concrete level was recorded by the testing equipment. On completion of the cutting work, the pile heads were lifted from the excavation pit by crane and labeled to match with the corresponding pile head.

To see photos and read more about the Diamond Award 2016 winners, visit www.iacds.org/diamondaward.

White, now in the second year of her two-year term as IACDS President, continues to be supported by Vice-Presidents Norikazu Shibuya of Japan and Phillippe Wingeier of Switzerland. Past President Jose Blanco of Spain remains as IACDS Secretary. The 2017 IACDS Annual Meeting will be held in Vienna, Austria. For more information about IACDS, or to download any of the technical documents produced by the association, visit www.iacds.org.

The International Association of Concrete Drillers & Sawers is an international trade association of sawing and drilling associations from the concrete construction and renovation industry. Its mission is to provide an international union and cooperation of trade associations to support and promote professional development of professional sawing and drilling contractors and their methods. Concrete cutting with diamond tools offers the industry many benefits, including reduced downtime, precision cutting, maintenance of structural integrity, reduced noise, dust and debris, limited-access cutting and the ability to cut heavily-reinforced concrete. This umbrella organization of sawing and drilling associations formed in 1995 is composed of the associations from France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

IACDS President’s Insight

Julie White
IACDS President

I would like to thank Concrete Openings and CSDA for giving me this chance to write a regular column and provide my thoughts as the current IACDS President. A great deal of work has been going on behind the scenes in recent months to really make the international association more relevant to its members and the industry.

Progress has involved lots of video conferencing, as the organization has representatives in in places like Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.—at times it feels like the United Nations of diamond drillers and concrete sawers!

One of my aims as IACDS President, along with others, is to ensure the association brings added value to the industry and that we are all clear with what we want IACDS to achieve. Furthermore, we have to be in agreement about how we achieve it.

I am extremely passionate about how important our specialist sector is to the construction industry—and the economy as a whole. I want to highlight that concrete sawing and drilling companies bring not just sophisticated equipment to the table, but great expertise as well.

As drillers and sawers we are, very often, involved right from the planning stage of a project. We can offer advice on how jobs can be undertaken based on years of experience, then execute the plan with great skill and professionalism.

It is this type of service that brings value to the client and makes us more than equipment operatives and, as the IACDS, we want our members to remind themselves and their clients of this no matter where they are in the world.

Please email me at juliewhite@d-drill.co.uk with any questions or visit www.iacds.org for more information about IACDS. Watch this space, as things are happening and more news will follow in the coming months.