GRC Products Engineered for the Commercial Building & Landscaping Market

Satu Bumi does more than make its own ranges of GRC planters, pots and street furniture. It offers a custom GRC design service for customers that want to develop specific custom GRC products or even whole ranges of GRC products. This service is not only utilised to support Satu Bumi’s CityScape commercial customers and the development of Satu Bumi’s Wholesale Distributor Range. It is also available to third party GRC manufacturers that require professional GRC design, mould making and product engineering services.

Satu Bumi is well placed to produce virtually any realistic shape or size GRC product utilising the following key attributes: -

• A large and highly skilled in-house product engineering team - that ensures excellent customer service

• A focus on internationally accepted quality GRC design standards - that ensures excellent quality results

• Low cost Indonesian based manufacturing facilities - that ensure internationally competitive pricing

• A large capacity for the production of precast molds - that ensures Satu Bumi can service the requirements of even the very largest projects

Satu Bumi’s factory is ISO 9001 certified and is committed to the application of industry standards and quality control processes in all aspects of its business where it is realistically possible, including compliance with the "Specification for the Manufacture, Curing & Testing of Glassfibre Reinforced Concrete (GRC) Products" produced by the International Glassfibre Reinforced Concrete Association (GRCA) in the UK.

Six Stage Custom GRC Manufacturing Process

The following is a summary of the six key stages in the manufacture of a custom GRC products by Satu Bumi: -

Initial Contact & Discovery Stage

At this stage the customer typically contacts Satu Bumi and provides enough information to enable Satu Bumi to assess the viability of the required GRC product with respect to Satu Bumi’s business model. Where possible, this should include the provision of design concepts and related drawings. Satu Bumi has a large Product Engineering Team that will assess the information supplied and provide the customer with feedback on the product’s general feasibility and on how Satu Bumi could design and produce the product in GRC.

Satu Bumi has a well defined business model that leverages its GRC design capabilities, low cost manufacturing infrastructure and large scale production capacity. Therefore, Satu Bumi does not generally take on the development and manufacture of GRC products that it has assessed as being unlikely to be successful from either a quality or commercial perspective.

Design Stage

Once both the customer and Satu Bumi have agreed on the viability of making the proposed base product in GRC during the discovery stage, Satu Bumi will prepare conceptual design drawings that will include references to specific design features such as form, dimensions, texture, colour, lifting and fixings points, provision for electrical and lighting conduits, and the inclusion of timber, steel or aluminium additions as required to match the design intent of the product. During the design stage, Satu Bumi will provide the customer with colour and/or texture swatches as required for the customer’s approval.

Shop Drawings Stage

Once the customer has agreed on the fundamental design of the required product, approved the relevant swatches, and made an initial payment for the product development as agreed between Satu Bumi and the customer, Satu Bumi will commence the formal shop drawings stage. At this stage Satu Bumi’s architectural drafts people will prepare detailed shop drawings for customer approval. These drawings will include the architectural detail required to enable the customer to provide final approval to start the process of making the product. Mould making will not commence without formal approval of the shop drawings by the customer.

Mould Making Stage

The Master: The first stage in the development of a mould for a precast GRC product is the making of a master. A master, sometimes called a plug, is an exact physical representation of the required product's theoretical design as depicted in the detailed shop drawings. Masters are typically made from a number of different substances such as wood, milne, clay, or even concrete and form the framework upon which a pre-casting mould is made. Masters become damaged and are normally discarded once they have been used to make a mould. Satu Bumi typically utilizes CNC router technology in the making of masters because it provides a high level of precision. However, Satu Bumi also relies heavily on the artistic competence and experience of its master making team to get the highest quality masters possible.

The Mould: Satu Bumi generally uses resin moulds which are made by applying various gauges of fiberglass matting and high quality resin to the surface of a master to create a reverse image. However, depending on the type of mould required, Satu Bumi sometimes uses rubber or wood for moulds. In addition, a variety of optional textures can be imprinted into the walls of the moulds as part of the mould making process. The quality of a mould can have a significant impact on the ultimate quality of a GRC casting. Therefore, Satu Bumi utilizes high quality raw materials to ensure its pre-casting moulds are of a world class standard. 

Prototyping & Testing: Satu Bumi’s Product Engineering Team typically produces the first casting of each product and takes it through a testing phase to ensure it is “fit for purpose” for the customer and to ensure it is “ready for production” before being passed as “ready to produce” and sent to the Manufacturing Department.

Manufacturing Stage

Spraying: The actual GRC products are made by spraying a scientifically calibrated mixture of concrete and glass fibre slurry into moulds, left to cure and harden for a set time period before being demolded and then left to continue the curing process. It is during the concrete slurry mixing stage that integrated concrete colour or waterproofing add-mixes are included. The high quality of Satu Bumi's GRC products is dependent on properly calibrated and maintained GRC production equipment, properly trained staff, high quality raw materials and industry standard production, monitoring and quality control practices.

Finishing: After curing, the precast GRC products are sent to the Finishing Department. The first step in the finishing process is the removal of any loose or sharp edges from the cast products subsequent to demoulding. After that, there are a significant number of optional stains and coatings that can be applied to the completed GRC castings including external sealants, internal sealants, graffiti protection, oxide colouring stains with either aged metal or stone appearances and high quality specialty paints. Satu Bumi achieves excellent finishing results because of its investment in the sourcing the best available finishing products and the implementation of industry standards based finishing processes.

Staging: After finishing, every individual product is taken through the last quality control process of staging where each product is placed on a “perfectly flat” staging area to check all its dimensions against the shop drawings, to ensure all straight edges are straight and that there are no production or finishing faults. In addition, where multiple products from a project are expected to be placed adjacent to each other during installation, the products are also staged next to each other during staging to ensure they are matched and numbered to assist in the installation process.

Delivery Stage

Packaging Design: The first part of the delivery stage is the design of the packaging to suite the product. Since Satu Bumi produces GRC products that can range significantly in size and weight, it is important that the packaging design is strong and protective enough to ensure the product can be transported and delivered in good order.

Packing: After finishing, the products are sent to the Packing Department. Appropriate packaging is an essential element in the preparation of GRC products for transportation to ensure they are not damaged between the factory and their ultimate destination. This is particularly important if the products need to be shipped over significant distances with the potential of several loading and unloadings along the journey. Satu Bumi offers both wood and cardboard packaging options depending on the shape and size of the products or the specific requirements of the customer.

Shipping: For non-FOB orders, Satu Bumi absorbs the cost of shipping to Australia (only) for commercial projects. However, to enable Satu Bumi to absorb these costs, it uses cost effective shipping container efficiency for transporting orders directly into its warehouse facilities at each of Australia's major ports.

Transport: Since Satu Bumi only charges its commercial customers for the cost of transporting orders from each of its port warehouses, it is generally able to transport orders to almost anywhere in Australia less expensively than the typical cost of interstate road transport.

An important part of Satu Bumi’s business model is the efficient and cost effective management of delivery costs from its packaging and shipping methodologies to the minimalization of the cost of final delivery to a project site. Satu Bumi sees this Delivery Stage as a distinct competitive advantage.

Options & Extras for GRC Products

Satu Bumi has and extensive range of Options & Extras for its Custom Range of commercial grade GRC products that will enable landscape architects to align the functionality and/or aesthetic appearance of any specific landscaping project.