Engineering Stainless Steel Cable Fittings for Suvarnabhumi Airport’s Glass Façade
At Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, the large glass façade relies on a cable-supported system to manage both the self-weight of the glass and wind load acting on the building envelope.
For Kinzi, the project was not about designing the overall façade structure. Instead, Kinzi worked from the structural load requirements specified by the project engineers and developed the stainless steel cable fittings needed to perform within that system.
From Structural Requirement to Fitting Design
The project engineers defined the load requirements that the cable-supported façade had to carry.
From those requirements, Kinzi designed and developed the stainless steel fork terminals and related cable end fittings so that each component could safely transfer the required forces through the cable system.
The fittings therefore had to be developed not only for geometry and assembly, but also for structural performance.
Forged Components for High-Load Connections
To achieve the required strength and reliability, the fork terminals were produced using a forged construction.
These forged fork terminals, together with the swaged cable end fittings, formed part of the connection system between the cables, façade components and supporting structure.
In a cable-supported glass façade, these relatively small fittings play a critical role in transferring loads through the system — including the self-weight of the glass and the wind forces acting on the façade.
Precision at the Connection Point
The technical challenge was to develop connection components that could meet the structural criteria provided by the project engineers while remaining compatible with the cable and connection geometry used throughout the façade.
Kinzi therefore focused on the design and manufacture of the fittings themselves, ensuring that the forged components and swaged terminals could perform reliably within the larger structural system.
Project Details
Project: Suvarnabhumi Airport
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Application: Cable-Supported Glass Façade
Kinzi Scope: Fitting Design Development & Manufacturing
Components: Forged Fork Terminals, Swaged Cable End Fittings & Stainless Steel Connection Hardware
Material: Stainless Steel
Structural Requirement: Designed to meet project-engineer load criteria for wind load and glass façade self-weight
Suvarnabhumi Airport demonstrates Kinzi’s capability to take structural performance requirements and translate them into precision stainless steel connection components for large-scale architectural cable systems.
