Hilti's  Fasteners for Facades and Cladding
Hilti is a supplier of fastening products to a variety of cladding applications. The company has been a partner to the glazing and the cladding industry for over a decade providing design, on-site support and continuously offering leading edge innovation helping to take the industry to the next level of safety, productivity, and design flexibility. There are several segments where HIlti operate and the key ones are described here.

Structural glazing: Structural glazing is a popular technique where glass is bonded to an aluminum window frame using a high-strength, high-performance silicone sealant. The glass is retained in the frame by adhesion without the necessity of any mechanical retention methods.

Structural glazing with sealants allows large glazed surfaces, not interrupted by traditional frames or any other supporting or fitting system projecting out of the frame. Instead of being fitted in a frame, the glass is fixed to a support, which in turn is attached to a structural element of the building.

Strategy Project
Aluminum Composite Panel: Aluminum Composite Panel (ACP) is composed of a non-combustible polyethylene core, laminated and sandwiched between two fine aluminum sheets. ACPs are extremely light, reducing the dead weight of the building and frame loading. They are resistant to extremes of weather exposure and temperature and have excellent UV characteristics resisting fading after large exposure times. In addition, they have high impact resistance and also provide reasonable sound insulation.

Stone facades: Stone facades are an increasing trend where panels (usually 1' x 1') are installed onto the structure or the brickwork using an adjustable clamp and fastening mechanism. Stone facades fall under the category of ventilated facades and provide good thermal insulation.

Hilti offers whole package of tools, equipment, fasteners and passive fire protection systems for the entire façade trade. In addition, its technical services team provides a variety of services to architects and consultants, and to contractors on jobsites to ensure that the desired results are achieved under varying and sometimes volatile jobsite conditions.

Services offered by the technical team are:
  • Professional software for anchor design
  • Selection of right anchor based on base material and loading
  • Detailed design of the load bearing capacity of fasteners and clamps (Stone façade)
  • Pull out test of anchors at project sites, along with a test report
  • Training to specifiers and contractors on anchor design, installation, quality checks etc.
Hilti also offers some innovative products to meet industry needs to increase design flexibility and ensure a higher level of productivity and safety.

The HST stud anchor from Hilti, is the ideal fastener where safety is at stake, even in worse type of climatic and design conditions. It can be used for fixings all types of structures, for example in highrise buildings with high wind loads, cantilever structure, and PEBs fixings and high-load applications.

It has European technical approval (ETA) for use in cracked and un-cracked concrete, and is also approved for use in tension zones, shock loading conditions, and fire. HST comes in several versions such as carbon steel, stainless steel and High corrosion resistant material. All the versions are made available to ensure the product suitability for coastal and non-coastal areas and highly corrosive environment.

anchoring

With more complex building designs in the pipeline, a new trend in the façade market is the increasing use of anchor channels during the casting of the concrete structure. This gives the flexibility of mounting brackets closer to the edge of the concrete, leading to more flexibility in shapes, and better designs under seismic conditions. Hilti with its wide range of anchor channels and bolts provides the customers and designers flexibility in choosing the channel based on the base material thickness and the load conditions. Professional software for channel design helps you to simulate the actual conditions prevailing at site.

Taller buildings and increased occupancies are driving a need for additional safety features. Passive fire protection in tall buildings, a common standard in most developed cities is slowly gaining acceptance in the booming metros of India. A wide variety of sealants for preventing smoke, heat and fire especially in curtain walls using the Hilti firestop joint spray system minimizes liability for the building owner, designer, façade contractor, and increases safety for the occupants. This sprayable and paintable system has a movement flexibility of +25% till -25% and comes with international approvals and test certificates.

Being a system solution provider, Hilti provides a wide variety of solution to support façade trade in the best way possible. Cordless tools such as the TE 6-A rotary hammer from Hilti can easily take care of fastenings done at a height or at places where electricity is a problem. Measuring tools such as the PR3 help to keep the alignment and measurement perfect even in adverse conditions with a single operator.