Fiatech

Presented by: Habib Fathi, Graduate Research Assistant, Georgia Institute of Technology; William Wilkins, Cheif Operating Officer, Metalforming

Reserve for this live webinar and earn 1.0 PDH

In the bidding process of a sheet metal roofing project, roofing contractors are currently using architectural drawings, a BIM file, or aerial photogrammetry to estimate the roofing area. However, as a roof structure is never built to the exact drawing dimensions, after the project is awarded, the as-built dimensions have to be acquired. These dimensions are then used to roll form and cut sheet metal coils into roof panels. There are a number of surveying methods available to measure the as-built dimensions of a roof structure including tape measuring, total station surveying, and satellite measuring. However, none of these methods are safe, inexpensive, automatic, and accurate enough at the same time. Moreover, the standard practice for cutting and forming sheet metal roof panels is on-site manual cutting. In this process, panels which are fitted to the hips and valleys of the roof are hand measured, hand marked individually, and cut to the proper angle with tin snips. This methodology is very time consuming and leads to a lot of error and left over scrap metal.

This webinar presents a technology that allows a roofing contractor to (1) acquire as-built dimensions of roof planes using a safer, less expensive, faster, and simpler surveying method which provides the required level of accuracy (i.e., ±1-2cm); and (2) upload the acquired dimensions into a computerized roof manufacturing process at the jobsite and digitally fabricate precise sheet metal roof panels ready for the final installation. This eliminates the previously discussed inefficiencies and automates the entire on-site sheet metal fabrication process. When using this technology, a roofing contractor will simply collect stereo video streams, with a calibrated set of two high resolution video cameras, of a target roof once the roof underlayment has been installed. The captured video data, which is stored on a Tablet PC or laptop, is processed and a 3D wire diagram of the target roof is generated which includes the as-built dimensions of each plane. The detailed dimensions, in a XML format, are uploaded into the CINCO machine control. TopViewTM 3D software program then layouts the optimum pattern of sheet metal panels required to cover each plane. All roof panel data is directly loaded into the touch screen controller of the machine. This allows editing the panel dimensions at the jobsite in real time, if necessary. Finally, the CINCO machine bends and cuts sheet metal coil into precise, ready to install panels.