Demonstration Stage of Pilot Program with Archistruct successfully completed; Adhesive-based wall system confirmed as meeting National Construction Code
- Demonstration Stage of Building Pilot Program with Archistruct successfully completed.
- Building Permit for robotically built Display Home approved.
- Prospectus Milestone achieved.
FBR is pleased to announce that:
- Fastbrick Australia Pty Ltd, the 50/50 Wall as a Service® ('WaaS®') joint venture established by FBR and Brickworks Building Products Pty Ltd , has now completed the Demonstration Stage of the Building Pilot Program with Archistruct Builders & Designers as announced on 16 September 2019;
- Local Government approval has been obtained by Archistruct for the construction of a Display Home under the Building Pilot Program; and
- FBR has achieved a key milestone under the 2015 Prospectus which related to the listing of the FBR business on the ASX.
Close of Demonstration Stage
Under the Demonstration Stage, Fastbrick Australia agreed to supply WaaS® to Archistruct, to construct a minimum of five and a maximum of 12 house structures on FBR premises using a range of designs agreed with Archistruct. Following the completion of the 11th house structure on FBR premises on 17 October 2019 and subsequent certification by independent structural engineers, Archistruct has now determined that the Demonstration Stage has fulfilled its purpose and has been formally brought to a close.
The Demonstration Stage has confirmed a range of practical benefits to building using the Hadrian X® and utilising WaaS®, including:
(a) the predictable accuracy of structures build by Hadrian X®, which enables the manufacture of finishing materials such as windows and door frames in parallel with (instead of subsequent to) wall construction, using the same digital data inputs used by Hadrian X® to build the wall structures;
(b) potentially significant time reductions in the building process, both in terms of the structural walls and the overall build timeframe; and
(c) the increased ease of installation of plumbing and electrical conduit due to the aligned cores of the Hadrian-optimised blocks supplied by Brickworks as part of the WaaS® offering.
Building permit for robotically build Display Home approved
The next stage of the Building Pilot Program with Archistruct is the Display Home Stage, which contemplates Archistruct building a display home using WaaS® to construct the structural and partition walls, with the finished home to be owned by FBR.
Once complete, FBR will initially use the finished home to demonstrate to the public and international partners the quality and other benefits of FBR's robotic construction technology. Once the Display Home has served its initial purpose, FBR will have the ability to sell it to a home buyer, thereby generating additional revenue.
In preparation for the commencement of the Display Home Stage, a building contract for the construction of the Display Home was signed by FBR and Archistruct and FBR entered into a contract to purchase the block of land on which the Display Home will be built. In addition, Archistruct applied to the applicable Local Government for a Building Permit (a process which included obtaining confirmation from a structural engineer that the adhesive and block wall system comprising WaaS® complied with the relevant requirements of the National Construction Code), which has now been successfully issued.
Following on from an extensive testing and demonstration pilot program, we are pleased that Archistruct have elected to move to the next phase of the Building Pilot Program Agreement with Fastbrick Australia and FBR. Having now received Archistruct's election to move to the Display Home Stage of the Building Pilot Program Agreement, along with the receipt of formal approval from local government to build an Archistruct-designed residential structure using the Hadrian X® and WaaS®, we will now finalise the preparatory work to take the Hadrian X® out onto a residential building site.
- Simon Amos, Chief Executive Officer - Australia
Update on the other Pilot Programs
On 11 October 2019, FBR announced that Fastbrick Australia has entered into a Building Pilot Program Agreement with Summit Homes Group, one of WA's most well-known builders. Similar to its Archistruct equivalent, the Building Pilot Program with Summit is also a three-stage program, with the Demonstration Stage having already commenced with Summit and progressing well. The first house structure in the Demonstration Stage has now been completed.
FBR also announced on 26 September 2019 that it had entered into a Building Pilot Program Agreement with GP Vivienda, the housing division of Mexican construction giant Grupo GP. This agreement represents the next stage of the Strategic Collaboration Agreement between FBR and GP Vivienda announced to the ASX on 20 June 2018.
The Building Pilot Program Agreement with GP Vivienda is also a three-stage agreement, with the first stage of which is a Pilot Program Stage, in which FBR will construct between one and five house structures on FBR premises utilising the Hadrian X® and CMU blocks, using a range of common Mexican designs supplied by GP Vivienda. In parallel, GP Vivienda and FBR are progressing the Block Testing Stage of the agreement, in which the parties are working together to test the performance of FBR's adhesive with concrete blocks that are commonly used in Mexico. A structural engineer has been engaged to work with the University of Monterrey to complete the Block Testing Stage.
Prospectus Milestone achieved
The independent directors of FBR's Board have determined that the performance condition attached to 166,666,666 Class B Performance Shares issued as part of the deferred consideration for the acquisition of FBR (formerly Fastbrick Robotics) contemplated in the Prospectus has been met. As a result, those Class B Performance Shares will be converted to Ordinary Shares on a one for one basis. The performance condition was triggered by the receipt of the completion payment for the tenth (10th) Full Home Structure constructed under a commercial arm's length contract using FBR's robotic home building technology.