During the 17th International Scientific Conference on Civil Engineering and Building Services held in Brașov, Romania, Alessandra Bianco – a final-year undergraduate student at the Faculty of Engineering – presented a paper titled ‘A non-destructive method for fixing placards with masonry structures’. It presented a conceptual design for a removable, reusable plug – the RR-Plug – whose installation is completely reversible without causing any damage to the masonry blocks, and it does not affect the geological fabric of the dimension stones. The design stimulated interest from the audience.
The paper was co-authored with Prof. Lino Bianco from the Department of Architecture & Urban Design at the Faculty for the Built Environment. The aim of the conference, organized by Transilvania University of Brașov (Romania), Shenyang Jianzhu University (China) and the Technical University of Moldova (Moldova), was to promote exchange of ideas in latest developments in civil engineering and building services.
The authors acknowledged the feedback they received on an earlier draft of the paper from Professor Ing. Joseph Buhagiar, the Head of the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malta.