Hofmann Facades offers total solutions for natural stone facades using traditional and innovative cladding materials, knowledge of building envelope technology, and stone manufacturing capabilities. The hybrid anchor is an innovative high-performance anchor system. It has been developed to maximize the load resistance of thin rainscreen stone facade panels against pull-out at the anchor hole.
The hybrid anchor is a combination of a pin and an undercut anchor. It used a side pin that can be up to 125 mm long and is inserted into a perforated part of a M6/M8/M10 threaded rod inserted from the backside of a panel with an embedment depth of at least 15 mm. The nut is tightened with 6 KN of torque.
The entire anchor acts in tension and engages a very large punching shear area in the panel which prevents local failure and protects against any variation in the stone’s naturally varied properties.
Facade Systems
This anchor is highly versatile and can be used for both hand-set and unitized facade systems. As the panel thickness at the anchor point is calibrated the result is a very precise façade with no overstand between panels.
- For hand-set facades, the hybrid anchor is connected to a c-channel bracket which is hung into rail systems (e.g. e-Clad). It also is well suited for overhead soffit panels which can only be anchored from the backside of the panel. It further serves as a tightly jointed mother-daughter connection using an L-shaped angle for corner details.
- In unitized curtain wall systems the hybrid anchor provides ideal load transfer to one fix and three loose points where the thermal expansion and contraction is adjusted in the substructure. This is ideally executed with a keyhole system so stone panels can be replaced ex-post.
- Strong back and other unitized systems including precast stone veneer equally benefit from the versatility, performance, and removal of thickness tolerance by calibration of this cutting-edge anchor system.
Applications
Many high-profile references built by Hofmann rely on this anchor including:
- American Museum of Natural History, New York
- 20 Ropemaker Street, London
- One Madison Avenue, New York
- Taunus Tower, Frankfurt
