Atlas Copco demolition tools make room for the new Fellbach tower

The carcass of a building on the outskirts of the town of Fellbach near Stuttgart which once had been planned as a hotel with a three-storey car park has to give way to a 108 m high-rise apartment building. The specialists of FWA Fischer Weilheim Abbruch GmbH & CO. KG rise to the challenge.

Construction work was stopped in the middle of building activities some 20 years ago. An investor has been found for the ruins, who wants to build an apartment building, the so-called 5to1 Tower, on the premises. The old building with its 70,000 cbm of walled-in space which at the time was completely erected from reinforced concrete up to a height of 12 m needs to be torn down. With spans of up to 15 m and binding beams and columns with a cross section exceeding one square meter this is not an ordinary day-to-day job for the specialists of FWA Fischer Weilheim Abbruch GmbH & Co. KG.

Work has to be carried out as unobstrusive as possible because of the fastfood restaurant and residential buildings in the immediate vicinity of the demolition site. Strong vibrations and large amounts of dust must be avoided. Therefore FWA Fischer Weilheim has equipped the excavators used in the demolition job with special sprinkling systems.

The fleet of vehicles used for tearing down the concrete building includes four hydraulic excavators of the 30 to 40-ton class, all equipped with hydraulic quick-change facilities to ensure that the correct tool is attached. As to the demolition tools, the company from Weilheim relies on the robust and powerful products of the Essen toolmakers of Atlas Copco.

Apart from two CC 3300 U CombiCutters, another three type HB 4200 and HB 3000 demolition breakers are used in Fellbach. Two excavators with straight mono booms and the CombiCutters were used to tear the building down to ground floor level after which the powerful demolition breakers took over in the basement. They had to demolish the heavy binding beams in the ceiling of the basement as well as the floor slab and the massive foundations.

The operators were more than impressed by the power of the CC 3300 U CombiCutters. With their comparable jaw width and power the cutter weighs nearly a ton less than other products on the market. This not only spares the demolition excavators but also warrants a larger operating range and thus a higher efficiency.

The operators of the Weilheim demolition experts are also enthusiastic about the hydraulic breakers. Powerful blows wreck the concrete without shaking the carrier and with only a minimum of vibrations. This allows the operators to work efficiently during many long working hours.

Apart from the equipment used on the Fellbach site, the demolition company of Weilheim also has other attachments made by Atlas Copco. All sizes are available from the small 150 kg breaker still in the old blue colour up to the HB 7000. The oldest breaker from the Essen production shop still in use today is more than 30 years old.