Powerful industry meets in Isny

Stairs of Mauthe, KBH paving blocks, pipes and manholes of Rinninger – only a few kilometers from Isny, this year’s venue of the membership meetings of Baden-Württemberg Association of Concrete and Precast Plants (FBF B-W; Fachverband Beton- und Fertigteilwerke Baden-Württemberg) and Baden-Württemberg Quality Assurance Association for Concrete and Precast Plants (GBF B-W; Güteschutz Beton- und Fertigteilwerke Baden-Württemberg), the new Center Parc “Park Allgäu” is under construction comprising 700 houses and about 5,000 beds. The construction site, where the above-mentioned precast concrete components will be installed, is just one example to demonstrate how busy and powerful the precast construction industry is in Baden-Württemberg, as stated with pleasure by the Executive Board and Management Directors of FBF B-W and GBF B-W when welcoming the participants of the two membership meetings in Isny in the Allgäu region of Germany.

In fact, both organizations and their members once again can look back on a successful year. Thanks to the growth in revenue in the fields of expert’s reports and quality management audits, the Quality Assurance Association was able to exceed the budgeted earnings target by around 3.5%, and the assets of the balance sheet now shows a positive increase for 2017 instead of an expected decline.

FBF reported an increase in earnings for 2017 by roughly 8% as against previous year and even the earnings target planned for 2017 was exceeded by around 3%. This is particularly due to the substantially higher income from the membership fees based on revenues as well as the considerably higher earnings due to interest earnings and returns on securities in 2017, as a result of the continuous positive economic situation.

CE markings – current situation

GBF B-W and Argus Cert Bau GmbH, which is organizationally assigned to them to carry out tests, third-party quality control and certification services, were very busy in 2017. They issued 461 inspection reports. This is supplemented by about 380 certificates of conformity, about 220 product certificates and about 370 certificates regarding CE marking – which however applies to the entire period since the foundation. The BQ-Zert GbR being specialized in quality management and environmental management certification and also organizationally assigned to GBF B-W has issued 29 certificates so far.

Dipl.-Ing. Steffen Patzschke, Managing Director of GBF B-W, informed on how the precast concrete industry should deal with the judgment in case C-100/13 delivered by the CJEU in October 2014. Due to the implementation of the Administrative Regulation on Technical Building Rules (MVV TB; Muster-Verwaltungsvorschrift Technische Baubestimmungen) and the introduction of new administrative regulations of the German states, the transitional period will gradually expire during which the industry was faced with uncertainty about the abolition of the Ü mark. For the use on a German construction site, GBF B-W recommends a verification under private law to prove the applicability of a building product that is not subject to a harmonized standard; this solution is accepted by building authorities. GBF B-W will give further information on the topic upon request.

Precision measurement of crack widths

Eventually, GBF B-W was able to present two new services: Using a high-performance precision camera, Eugen Weber, Steffen Platzschke and Wilfried Röser, the experts especially certified for this purpose, determine the widths of cracks inside pipes exactly. This shall help to reject alleged defects which are not justified.

GBF B-W offer the second service together with Kiwa; in this case, they accompany the documentation process for the voluntary sustainability certification of the Concrete Sustainability Council (see BFT International 06/2018, page 60).

Large radius of activities

The activity report of the Baden-Württemberg Association of Concrete and Precast Plants illustrated the wide range of activities on a national and international level in 2017.

In the field of lobbying and communication special note should be made of a position paper, for example, which was published in 2017 as part of the campaign “Impulse für den Wohnungsbau” (impulses for housing construction). The key demands on politics in Baden-Württemberg are: to provide building land quickly and cheaply, to accelerate the building permit procedures, to avoid additional cost drivers and to strengthen the new construction of permanently used residential buildings.

The activities in the field of training and education are particularly important given the growing shortage of skilled workers. In this regard, FBF B-W offered various education and training programs in 2017, such as the new training course “IHK master craftsman in proc-essing technology and process engineering (m/f)”.

BetonTage congress on the path of expansion

Another service in the field of training and education is the online learning platform of the “BetonQuali” program. The part-time training program focuses on the transfer of knowledge independent of location and with the aid of digital media in preparation for the final examination as process technician in the non-metallic minerals industry.

The range of further training and education programs, moreover, include the BetonTage congress, which is organized for FBF B-W by FBF Betondienst GmbH every year in Neu-Ulm. Today, the conference and exhibition is the biggest event for the precast concrete industry in Europe. The successful concept is also in great demand on an international level meanwhile. Therefore, there are now branches in Shanghai, China as well as in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, too.

New executive board

In addition, the agenda of the FBF included elections to the board this year. The majority of members voted for Fried-rich Gebhart for the position of president, for Martin Kronimus, Kronimus AG, and Wilfried Röser, Siegfried Röser GmbH + Co. KG for the position of vice-presidents and for Richard Bayer, Bernd Betz, Rolf Harsch, Friedrich Klein, Christof Leuchtner, Jörg Rinninger, Uwe Sommer, and Laurenz Zuber as additional board members. Michaela Högerle, Josef Högerle Betonwerk GmbH, and Dietmar Köster, Adolf Blatt GmbH + Co. KG, were newly elected for the position of auditors.

The members of the assembly of FBF B-W and GBF B-W approved their respective boards and the budget for 2017 as well as the budget for 2018 were each unanimously accepted. The contribution rules of both organization remain unchanged for 2018.

Text: Christian Jahn, M. A.