Awesome work here
@Weitwinkel - These links are littered with great information! A little scratch at the surface and I have recieved some interesting information.
Wienerberger: "A partnership was agreed with the Australian construction robot manufacturer Fastbrick Robotics (FBR) with the aim of launching the newly developed construction robot for brick processing on the market after completion of the pilot project in Europe".This statement sounds a lot like the deal is pretty much done conditional to a successful pilot project. This Partnership is already leaps and bounds above the sleepy MOU with Caterpillar yet we dropped 70% when we traded CAT for Wienerberger & Brickworks. We never saw an announcement, a commitment, not even a peep from CAT, yet we instantaneously saw the CEO of the multibillion dollar WB company personally address FBR in a video presentation and dedidicate a page in their Annual Report to FBR. It blows my mind how attached people Had become to CAT as the reaction was and is in no way proportional to the sell off we endured.
Click '
here ' for Wienerbergers 2018 Annual Report announced on March 28th 2019 - Page 46 has a page dedicated to FBR as seen below:
Another Statement from Wienerberger "Within the framework of a pilot project, specialbricks are being developed and tested in cooperationwith FBR. Subsequently, the masonry robot is to bedeployed in selected Wienerberger markets". This says to me again that the pilot project is a monumental part of the agreement. In addition, whilst we are prepping HX for the pilot, the above statement "special bricks are being developed" details that the wheels are already in motion on this front. So in my eyes theres no need to worry about brick compliance to building standards, WB is the expert, and they will make a compliant brick that HX can lay.
Theres also statements not just from the above but also FBR going out of their way to mention "HX01" that leads me to believe that WB & FBR will eventually collaborate on a dually funded HX02... Purely speculation at this point but the idea is growing on me that they will work together on the next generation...
Some other digging up also lead me to some Sqm pricings which could quite well help on further Analysis on how FBR compares competitively against Poroton's prefabricated walls using practically the same bricks we propose to use - Click '
here ' for the full price list report.
Although Poroton is somewhat operating in the same 'robotics bricklaying' space as FBR, re-iterating what Weitwinkel mentioned - FBR can capitalise on a different market. Whilst Poroton is attractive to local construction companies, its location is fixed and its its Return On Investment is restricted to its demographic location wheras HX can adress non-localised areas in which the factory is basically on wheels. In WB's point of view, i would imagine them seeing FBR as the solution and market fill to Poroton, or potentially vise versa Poroton is the market filler being used where demand is unusually high and demands a production hub.
When i get a chance i will try to prep up a comparison of our Sqm cost against Poroton's based of the average of 8000 bricks per 3x2 home using the below Case Study i wrote up a few months back:
If you still have questions around how water Ingress issues for Monolithic (single leaf) building practices i strongly urge you to research Porotons building practices as you will find that the answers are more than likely there.
Thanks
@Weitwinkel for bringing great insight from your end of the globe.
(20min delay)