Scaffolding is an important construction tool. Since the 1960s, various forms of scaffolding have been researched and developed in China. Among them, the fastener-type steel tube scaffold has the advantages of simple processing, convenient transportation, and strong versatility. It has become the most used and most commonly applied scaffold in China at present, accounting for the vast majority of the total use of scaffolds. In the future, this scaffolding will still dominate. However, this kind of scaffolding has poor safety and low construction efficiency. The maximum erection height is 33m, which cannot meet the needs of high-rise building construction. Ringlock Scaffolding produced by scaffolding supplier Durascf is more popular.
Since the 1970s, China has successively introduced portal scaffolding systems from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries and applied them in the construction of some high-rise buildings. It can be used not only as an internal and external scaffolding for building construction, but also as a floor slab, beam form work bracket and mobile scaffold, etc. It carries various functions, so it is also called multifunctional scaffolding.
In the early 1980s, some domestic manufacturers began to imitate portal scaffolding. By 1985, there were already 10 companies producing portal scaffolding. Portal scaffolding has begun to be widely promoted and applied in projects in some areas, and has been welcomed by the majority of construction units. However, due to the different product specifications and inconsistent quality standards of the various factories, it has brought certain difficulties to the use and management of the construction unit. At the same time, because the materials and specifications of the steel pipe adopted by some factories did not meet the design requirements, the door frame is low in stiffness, heavy, easy to deform during transportation and use, poor in processing accuracy, and short in service life, which seriously affects the promotion of this new technology.
In the 1990s, the portal scaffolding did not get developed, however it was used even less in construction. Many portal scaffolding plants closed, and only a few units having products with excellent quality continued to produce. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new type of portal scaffolding based on the characteristics of China’s architecture.
In particular, since the “New Formwork and Scaffold Application Technology” project was selected by the Ministry of Construction in 1994 as one of the 10 key new technologies for the construction industry, significant progress has been made in the research, development, promotion and application of new scaffolding.
Recently, the Ministry of Construction has made partial adjustments to the content of 10 new technologies in the construction industry, of which the technical content of the new formwork and scaffolding has also changed slightly. The new type of scaffolding refers to bowl-buckle scaffolding and portal scaffolding. Promote the application of square tower scaffolding in bridge construction, and promote the overall climbing frame and cantilever scaffolding in high-rise building construction.
With the increasing maturity and perfection of the Chinese construction market, bamboo-wood scaffolding has gradually been eliminated from the construction market, and it is still only used in some remote and backward areas. Portal scaffolding and bowl-buckle scaffolding are only used in a small number of projects such as municipal administration and bridges. According to preliminary estimation, ordinary fastener steel pipe scaffolds still account more than 70% of the domestic market in China due to their advantages of simple maintenance, long service life and low investment cost, and there is greater room for development.
