Every revolution appears before us; it throws up a new challenge to all of the traditional items. The reason is uncomplicated; every revolution continuously comes up with some supplementary benefits than the traditional items. Just think of the industrial items that were used a decade ago; almost everything was made of timber. Later the advent of steel and aluminum had replaced the timber-made items. Undoubtedly, the aluminum and steel made items have much more advantageous than timber made items; hence the industries welcomed the replacement well.
Likewise, the revolution of fiberglass sections has replaced steel and aluminum items to a great extent and thus it has outclassed its contemporaries in several factors. Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRPs), being very much sturdy and long-lasting, have competed adequately with steel and aluminum items. Well, people used to prefer aluminum whenever they felt to adopt several items for industrial purposes.
Why did they prefer Aluminum for industrial purpose?
Whenever businessmen needed to build up some strong windows, curtain walling, display equipment, and partitioning etc. the first material that people searched for was aluminum – simply because aluminum used to denote sturdiness and long lasting features. But, after the development of Pultrusions process that results in the production of FRP materials people got a better alternative than these aluminum items. It was in the year 1980/90 when scientists discovered such process with the sole intention of making GRP materials much stronger as well as more flexible. Moreover, then process enables GRP materials even stronger than that of aluminum.
The difference of FRP and aluminum products:
Aluminum materials are not capable of attaining U values below about 1.8 whereas most of the experts opine that it would be safer if the U values can be kept under 1.2. The basic reason behind such high values of aluminum is for its low insulation abilities. On the other hand, GRP Fibreglass has characteristically low ‘U’ values. And that’s why it is considered resistant to several factors such as weather and salt/sea spray. Moreover, it not only deforms like aluminum; but also needs no maintenance cost as well; rather it can be repainted as well as repaired if you feel it necessary. Let’s have a look on the following precise points that come with FRP materials exclusively.
· Service life: Around 50 – 75 years which is twofold that of any other contemporary material.
· Thermal efficiency: U values of 0.9 which is almost half of that of aluminum.
· Strength: Here too, fiberglass sections are better alternatives than steel. Do you know that FRP materials possess twice the strength to weight ratio of steel and they even don’t deform like that of aluminum!
· Sustainability: Lastly, in terms of sustainability too, this kind of material has got 3½ extra credits in any B.R.E.E.A.M assessment.
So, you can easily comprehend why so many business persons look for such items over traditional items like aluminum and steel.
ArchitEX 