JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #47 - March/April 2009 - 76

SPECIAL jec composites show 2009 BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION Winner: OCV Reinforcements (France/USA) Partnership network: Rossi Stamp (Italy), Bouvet & Lorillard (France), IDA Industrie Design Name of product or process: A façade with an innovative modular system that makes an extensive use of sandwich composites to support both glass and marble elements. Description: Façade for a six-storey office block in Copenhagen that would present two entirely different aspects, depending on the viewpoint of the observer. Viewed from one side, the building would appear to have a façade that is basically a glass wall. Viewed from the opposite side, it would appear to be completely finished in marble. The same effect was required for all four sides of the building. The total area to be covered by the facade is approximately 4,000 square metres. Instead of taking the traditional approach with a steel latticework onto which the travertine stone cladding and glazing units would be attached, Skandinaviska Glassystem developed an innovative modular system that makes extensive use of sandwich composites to support both the glass and marble elements. Advantages or salient features: The system is significantly lighter than the traditional approach – by a factor of around 4:1 – and well within the permitted building loads. This approach also allows very fast installation by a much smaller team. Further time and cost are saved by the fact that the modules can be installed directly onto the building’s steel-reinforced concrete floors virtually as soon as the floors are complete, and without the need for additional supporting steelwork. The system offers inherent insulation properties, does not rust or corrode, and is basically immune from moisture uptake even if the uninstalled modules are left exposed to the elements for a prolonged period of time. State of development: Construction is ongoing and should be finished by spring 2009. The system can be applied worldwide to all types of building. More information: www.skandglas.se times (only 4-6 minutes), and no adhesive bonding is required. In the final product, the SMC resin (about 7 kg/m²) infiltrates into the core, eliminating any risk of delamination. This makes for a one-piece door that is highly resistant to thermal cycles. The in-mould surface finish can be varied for texture (imitation wood). The product is recyclable. State of development: The process has been perfected and the doors are already for sale. European and perhaps even global markets are being targeted – North America would be a promising one. There are good growth prospects with a potential for several hundred thousand doors per year. The process could be applied to other types of objects. Architecture (Italy) Name of product or process: Twintex-reinforced thermoplastic windows. New localized reinforcement process to replace metal reinforcements. Description: The solution replaces a previous two-step process that involved pultruding profiles and reinforcing these with metal inserts. The new process is somewhere in between pultrusion and extrusion, and allows reinforcing locally with Twintex only where necessary. The profiles are then cut and assembled using standard methods. Advantages or salient features: The new profile manufacturing process simplifies the work without affecting the plant and equipment for window production, and affords great profile design freedom. The windows are stiffer, more cost-effective, and there are no thermal bridges. The technology can be applied to all types of thermoplastic profiles. State of development: All the pre-development work was done in-house by the company’s R&D centre in Chambéry. Thermoplastic window frame manufacturers (Bouvet & Lorillard France) have adopted this process for new products and technologies to reinforce their thermoplastic lineals, especially for large dimensions and/or coloured profiles. More information: www.owenscorning.com/composites Winner: Skandinaviska Glassystem AB (Sweden) Partnership network: Diab Group AB (Sweden) Competing company: Acell SpA (Italy) Partnership network: Polynt SpA (Italy) Name of product or process: Entrance doors for homes, made of SMC composite moulded over phenolic structural-foam core. Description: The advantage of the process is that it uses a standard 100-T press instead of a high-capacity press (1500 T and higher) to mould the SMC over the open-cell phenolic foam core, allowing the use of aluminium moulds. Advantages or salient features: The process saves considerably on investment in terms of machines, mould fabrication and cycle 76 jec composites magazine / No47 March-April 2009

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #47 - March/April 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #47 - March/April 2009