Seen at SAMPE 2013 #2

[SAMPE – the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Processing – held its convention in Long Beach, CA in early May, and Composites and Architecture went to check out the trade show.  This is the second of two posts about what we saw.]

The 2013 SAMPE trade show was largely oriented towards aerospace application of composites, but there were hints here and there of products and materials that are crossing over into architecture and construction.

The show was dominated by carbon fiber products, many of them already formed into pieces of airplanes.   Carbon fiber, apparently, has hearts a-flutter all over the aerospace industry with its terrific strength-to-weight ratio.

Consider this belt of linear carbon fiber, a composite with the nearly unpronounceable brand-name Olimunllum®.  The website for Olimunllum America shows things like very slick parts for bicycles, but the representative in the trade show booth mentioned another application:  “You can wrap bridges with it.”

This particular piece of material is perhaps 1 mm thick.  The composite is 1/5 the weight of steel.  It can be used for structural repairs.  He said they bond it right onto the concrete.  It is manufactured in several thickness and in a variety of structurally useful profiles.

The structural strength and flexibility of this and similar materials suggests strongly that architectural applications with high structural value are completely feasible.  Admittedly, carbon fiber is a pricey raw material.  HOwever, bridges are very expensive to replace, even an expensive repair method may be preferable to the construction cost and economic dislocation of replacing an active piece of infrastructure.

Will carbon fiber become economically feasible for new construction?  That will probably depend on how imaginative a demand a designer puts on it.