BUTTING has received the order to supply design and structure pipes, which, once further processed in The Netherlands, will “disguise” the Burj in Dubai from the outside, running round horizontally. After its completion the tallest building in the world, which will represent the centre of a new urban development area, called Downtown Dubai, will be 818m high. The building with a total of 189 storeys represents a superlative technological and logistical challenge in all respects. Completion of the skyscraper is planned for the late summer of 2009 – but the total 4.2 million m2 interior space has already been sold. The BUTTING design & structure pipes will be used in a combination of 9 pipe levels, distributed across all the levels of the skyscraper. As well as their decorative function, the pipes must also fulfil weight-related requirements: the tower is provided over all levels with external Building Maintenance Equipment. External maintenance and cleaning is performed by a total of 13 transit systems, which all lead out from a so-called parking zone inside the building. The structure pipes supplied by BUTTING fulfil in this context the function of rails, on which the transit systems take up position through a shunting system and then travel along. The delivery, 11,200m of pipes with an external diameter of 273mm in wall thicknesses of 3.0mm, 5.0mm, 8.00mm and 12.50mm, took place in fixed lengths of 5 to 12m. On the grounds of the maritime atmosphere in Dubai, with a high salt content in the air, the material AISI 316L / 1.4404 was used. All the pipes were treated with inductive annealing, in order to ensure the most appropriate microstructure for all the bending processes.
