Gaptek specializes in developing sustainable construction solutions, always focused on maximizing performance and minimizing the environmental impact of each project. For the company, material selection is crucial, and aluminum has become one of its main allies. Its lightness, strength, and durability make it an ideal choice over steel, especially for constructions requiring transport efficiency, quick assembly, and low maintenance. In this article, Gaptek shares the reasons why it prioritizes aluminum and how its qualities contribute to their mission of delivering innovative and environmentally responsible structures.

In the next article, the company will delve deeper into aluminum’s energy efficiency and carbon footprint, exploring its role in sustainable construction.

1. Lightweight and Transport Efficiency: Aluminum is much lighter than steel, with a density of only 2700 kg/m³ compared to steel’s 7850 kg/m³. This translates to lighter structures that are easier to transport and assemble, significantly reducing logistical and installation costs. Furthermore, the lower weight of aluminum reduces the foundation requirements, further lowering construction costs without compromising structural stability.

2. Strength and Design Flexibility: Aluminum’s lightness does not compromise its strength. Aluminum offers an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, making it suitable for applications where durability and load-bearing capacity are essential. This combination of lightness and strength enables innovative and efficient structural designs, surpassing traditional steel limitations.

The table 1 shows the values for strength, specific weight, and strength-to-weight ratio of each material. Although aluminum has strength similar to Steel S275 (260 MPa versus 275 MPa), its specific weight is much lower (2700 kg/m³ compared to 7850 kg/m³). This lower weight allows aluminum to achieve a strength-to-weight ratio of 0.096 MPa/kg/m³, significantly higher than both steels: S275 has a ratio of 0.035 MPa/kg/m³, and S355, 0.045 MPa/kg/m³. This indicates that aluminum is far more efficient for applications where reducing weight without compromising strength is essential.

The table 2  presents a direct comparison of aluminum’s strength-to-weight ratio with Steel S275 and S355. We see that, in terms of weight, aluminum is 66% lighter than both types of steel (with a relative weight value of 0.34 compared to 1 in steels). This, combined with its high strength, makes aluminum’s strength-to-weight ratio 2.75 times greater than Steel S275 and 2.13 times greater than Steel S355.

From 29th January to 1st February our commercial team will be visiting the Arab Health show; an annual event dedicated to the health sector held at the Dubai World Trade Center. It is one of the largest professional gatherings in the Middle East, showcasing a wide range of healthcare products, services, and technologies from organizations around the world.

We will take this opportunity to present the advantages of our construction systems in future building projects since, in addition to operating in the civil aeronautics and defense sector, we also design and build industrialized buildings for the hospital sector. The GAPTEK system overcomes geographical barriers and provides efficient and adaptive solutions.

With more than 14,000 m2 of hospital infrastructures installed globally, our system has the capacity to accommodate diverse technologies offering sustainable and energy efficient solutions, overcoming the limitations of traditional construction methods and with a rapid and efficient deployment capability.

We tailor our solutions to the specific requirements of each project, offering from basic health centers to high-capacity hospitals, maintaining high quality and predefined features in compliance with today’s most demanding standards and thus covering diverse needs and demands.

In the West, there are also solutions that can create hospitals just as quickly. The modular construction system of the Spanish company Gaptek, used until now by NGOs in humanitarian aid missions, allowed the construction of standardized, prefabricated, modular and good quality buildings, adapted to different requirements and contexts, such as the one created by the coronavirus. 

Once in place, the use of only mechanical joints, without welding, allows a simple construction, reducing the time of the assembly process and allowing for the complete disassembly and relocation of the structure if necessary.

I Understand it’s a construction method based on the assembly of pieces

Yes, indeed, we use a highly qualified construction system, which meets the most demanding standards of safety and efficiency, especially considering that we are talking about a construction oriented to the health sector in this case.

This is a new concept of flexible design and construction, which Gaptek has so far successfully developed in the military sector and which has been applying in sectors such as airports, logistics, retail and humanitarian aid.

Are they suitable for any kind of field? Where can these modular buildings be erected?

Since it does not require foundations, our modular construction system can be adapted to areas that are usually used for other functions within hospital or health care complexes, for example parking lots, rest areas, accesses, etc. It is in those locations where our solutions become Hospital Support Modules (HSM).

What are the main advantages of Gaptek’s proposal within the framework of the needs that arised regarding the fight against COVID-19 in Spain?

First of all it is a qualified space care solution and secondly, a solution that can also be available in a short time. We provide health professionals with a coherent space with the purpose of increasing the capacity of admission and thus being able to provide assistance to affected citizens within a hospital logistics and under control. This is the need covered by the Hospital Support Modules, a need that fits perfectly with the emergency situation provoked in Spain by the coronavirus. By referring less severe cases to isolated modules located on the outer perimeter of the hospital centers, the space of the interior facilities is recovered for the most critical patients who require vital systems for their treatment.

What about internationally?

On the international level, Gaptek has extensive experience in providing HSM in the third world.

Thanks to our construction system, we build comprehensive hospitals with capacities of 200 to 300 patients, which can also be located in remote areas, for example in Africa or Central America. In fact, we are currently operating in Chile and Colombia, where they are preparing for the massive impact that the coronavirus will have on their population, in areas where the health infrastructures are deficient to cover this type of situation.