Technology and construction have been in a long-term symbiotic relationship for generations, and 2018 has plenty of new innovations to renew the joy between them. You may think that a construction site is just a place for rugged dudes and lots of dust, but there’s much more to building now than brute force and grit.
There are numerous nifty tech tools being put to use in today’s construction sites, and you may be excited about a few of them. Like an RFI management software, who knew that it would be this easy to manage and process information requests? Read through a brief description of just a few of the most interesting technological advances available for the job site this year, and let your mind consider the possibilities.
Safety on the job site
Wearable tech tools have made the job site much safer than it has ever been before. As wearable technology becomes more and more mainstream, site managers and foreman have more control over the safety of their workers.
Triax makes wearable site technology that offers the ability track each and every worker throughout the day. Triax wearable devices are capable of alerting in real time when someone has tripped, slipped, or fallen.
The tool gives construction managers a more efficient way of looking after the safety of their workers. Being injured on a construction site is all too common, but with the help of Triax, the occurrence of costly accidents is slowly decreasing.
Self-healing concrete
Up until now, the world has spent excess time and money repairing old and broken concrete on the roads, but there’s hope for the future. A chemical engineering professor at the University of Rhode Island developed a new, more efficient form of concrete that has the ability to patch itself.
No more patching, reinforcing, or redoing old, cracked pieces of the road. The “smart” concrete is mixed with tiny capsules that break open when the concrete cracks and release a gel-like substance that hardens. It’s like Fix-A-Flat for the road!
Aerogel insulation
The newest form of insulation is so light it can sit on top of a flower without crumbling its pedals. Aerogel is nearly weightless and can provide super-insulating protection for homes in the very near future.
Aerogel may sound like a slimy, wet substance, but all of the liquid is removed from the gel, leaving only the silica structure. The substance can be up to 99 percent air, and weight as little as 3 times the weight of air.
Temperature-reactive tiles
If you were a kid in the ‘90s, then you understand the awesomeness that was the Hypercolor t-shirt. The heat from the sun would change the shirt’s colors when you went outside. Similarly, there are now thermoreactive tiles that change color when heated.
Place these tiles in your new shower to have a beautiful display of color revealed everytime you bathe. The tiles appeal a sleek black and shift into a rainbow display once heated.