The Composites Industry is Moving Fast
Award winners in construction and civil engineering
“The composites industry is moving fast,” says Mrs Frédérique Mutel, JEC President and CEO.
This year, 14 companies and their partners will receive awards at the JEC Composites Show (March 29-31, 2011). The programme was created in 1998 with the goal of promoting innovation. Each year, a jury of renowned international experts chooses the best composite innovations, based on their technical interest, market potential, partnership, financial impact and originality. The 2011 JEC Awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday March 29th at 5:00 pm on the JEC Show and will be open to all visitors.
“Innovation is strong in four sectors,” says Mrs Mutel. “First, in environmental-friendly fully recyclable materials.Then,in advanced mould tooling. The third sector is civil engineering with a large number of new infrastructures, especially in Asia or South America. Finally in automotive, with the increasing use of composites due to the need for lightness in new cars to compensate for the increased weight of electronic equipment or batteries. As we received numerous entries on these subjects, we had to create four additional categories that were not existing last year: Thermoplastics, Equipment, Civil Engineering and Automotive.”
Category: Construction
Ventilated Facade for the new Sheraton Hotel at the Milan Malpensa Airport
Winner: 3B Fibreglass (Belgium)
Partners: P.C.R. SRL and architects King (Italy) and Roselli, Architetti of Rome (Italy)
The concept is based on a large folding skin wrapped around the modules containing the rooms. This outer skin is made of glass-fibre-reinforced composite material. The final solution uses a damp-proof reinforced membrane finished in white for the flat roof, combined with a pultruded glass-reinforced plastic sheeting on a metal sub-structure for the curves and the down-stands of the skin.
The material was produced in 22-metre-long, 1.40-metre-wide strips that are extremely light and can easily be handled on a busy construction site. It was a great challenge to avoid showing joints for such a large surface, which must not “move” when subjected to extreme temperatures and weather changes. The surface was also shaped to form bidirectional curves on the top of the roof, against the front line of the hotel, which is 420 meters wide and 14 m high.
Though rarely used in building so far, this technology has the advantages of being light and precise, making it possible to manufacture sheeting lengths up to 22 meters with almost invisible joints. Reduced costs and construction times coupled with the inherent qualities and finish of the material were decisive in achieving the desired result. Overall, the cost of the installed cladding is very competitive.
Other finalist in the Construction category:
A single-piece house presented by Escola da Cidade (Brazil) with its partner Brazilian Composite Materials Association (ABMACO).
Category: Civil Engineering
A composite bridge beam
Winner: Acciona Infraestructuras S.A (Spain)
Partners: Saertex GmbH&Co.KG (Germany), Huntsman Advanced Materials GmbH (Switzerland), Glascraft Iberica S.L (Spain), Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) and Universidad Politcnica de Madrid (Spain)
Acciona Infaestructuras S.A and its partners have designed and manufactured a composite bridge beam made from a single piece (40 m long) and weighing only 25 t, which is half the weight of a concrete or steel bridge (minimum 50 metric tons). The beam required a “slenderness ratio” (ratio of depth to the length of the beam) of less than 1.2/40, combined with a maximum cross sectional thickness of 50 mm and a depth of 1,200 mm.
The entire project took about 1 year to complete. Two more bridges will be delivered to Spain by the end of this year. Talks are in process with African countries to manufacture and install 10 composite bridges over the next two years.
These composite bridges offer more design freedom. No joints or assembly are necessary as the beam is made from a single piece. Compared with a concrete beam, which requires 28 days just for curing, the composite beam was ready for shipping in 15 days. No painting required. They are easy to transport, quick and easy to install on sites where high-capability cranes are not available. They provide better corrosion resistance than concrete and steel in coastal areas, and require less maintenance.
Other finalists in the Civil Engineering category:
A high-performance carbon fibre composite hydraulic for deep-sea use presented by Automated Dynamics (USA) with its partners Union College (USA) and Cameron (USA).
Protective composite wall for strengthening a railway zone presented by ApATeCh (Russia) with its partners Lightweight Structures B.V. (Netherlands), Moscow State University of Railway (Russia) and Engineering (Russia)
