ELEPHANT
The system is designed to produce prestressed lintels at industrial level, specifically prestressed brick-cement lintels.
These items feature a reinforced concrete core, embedded into a brick shell. The brick shell consists of a well-aligned set of equal modules, up to 50cm long, in bricks, called “rafter shaping blocks” or “bottom bases”. Brick-cement items have their own specific features.
In general:
- they improve the structure's soundproofing and thermal insulation
- they improve the structure's breathability
- they improve aesthetics in “exposed brickwork”.
Technically:
- it is correct to match normal brickwork items (interposed filler blocks, hollow bricks) with these specific structural brick-cement items: both have the same hygroscopic behaviour and this prevents dark spots that appear on the plaster in correspondence to all-concrete items due to moisture changes
- it is required to prevent reinforcements from coming in contact with the brick shell: in full compliance with standard EN15037, which requires minimum concrete enclosure around reinforcements to protect them from oxidation.
