First was a vertical wedge action pair of presses designed by us in 1980.strong and efficient, these machines lacked the flexibity of the lighter and cheaper later models.
INJECTION PRESSES : 1980, FIRST GENERATION
First was a vertical wedge action pair of presses designed by us in 1980.strong and efficient, these machines lacked the flexibity of the lighter and cheaper later models.
RIGID INSULATION IS EMINENTLY SUSTAINABLE
Rigid urethane insulation has been used in the building and construction industries since the 1950’s. Over the past 40 years, in excess of 500 million square metres of insulated panels have been manufactured by the continuous lamination process and have been successfully used in roof and wall cladding applications worldwide.
The superior long term performance of metal faced insulated panels with rigid urethane cores is now widely recognised by building investors and designers when compared with site assembled, multi-part, built-up cladding systems. This has resulted in significant growth for this type of construction system.
The main reasons for this growth are:
- Increasingly stringent building regulations, which in many countries require the use of insulation to comply with energy efficiency and CO2 emission targets.
- The rising cost of fuel and energy. Effective thermal insulation can reduce HVAC / heating costs by up to 40% wherever it is installed.
- The environmental cost of energy production is also a factor which now needs to be considered. The burning of fossil fuels for energy production is estimated to contribute 80% of the world’s CO2emissions. These green-house gases contribute to the problem of global warming, and so the conservation of energy is the most direct and cheap way to reduce CO2 emissions and thus control global warming.
- Industry experts estimate that worldwide insulation of buildings to optimum standards could reduce global energy requirements by more than 10%.
- Rapid site assembly and early completion of a building project is demanded by investors and insulated sandwich panels provide ‘single fix’ fast on-site installation.
Investors require superior specification, low maintenance and long-term product performance.
CLIENTS
We deal with international organizations that either sponsor help teams, perform design and guidance or otherwise are directly involved at producing shelters and reconstructive solutions after local disaters. Our first clients were from Bengladesh, Armenia, Mexico, Italy and Japan. We are now expanding our reach through a central office in Paris manned by Luc Piché, a high official of the Canadian Embassy there.
We also work with housing manufacturers to help them perfect their products aimed at the reconstruction market.
Finally we are actively involved with a few refugee tent manufacturers as well as with their end users, be they Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross.
We also work with housing manufacturers to help them perfect their products aimed at the reconstruction market.
Finally we are actively involved with a few refugee tent manufacturers as well as with their end users, be they Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross.
OUR COORDINATES
- In Cantamar, Mexico
Plant: (0152) 661-614-3262
- In Carlsbad, CA USA 3402 Santa Clara Way, Carlsbad CA 92010
Lab : 760-442-3402
- Jacques Poirier, dir. jacquesbpoirier@gmail.com
Nicole Beaudry, ass. dir. beaudrynicole@yahoo.com
Skype In: 760-742-5164
- Luc Piché, Paris FR lucpiche@gmail.com
phone on request only
- Ron Smith, Dallas TX amnowalso@sbcglobal.net
phone on request only
STAFF AND CONSULTANTS (Click on name to eMail that person)
- Jim Poirier, B.Sc.-B.Arch- Industrial Designer- Architect and Director of the Institute-(English-French)
- Robert Bianchi, B.A., B.Arch. (English-French-Italian)
- Marcello DelRio, Arch. - Architect (English- Spanish-Portuguese)
- Nicole Beaudry, M.B.A. -Public Relations- (English-French-Spanish)
- Jimmy Gauthier, P.Ing. - Structural Engineer - (English-French)
- Luc Piché, M.B.A. - Scs.Pol, Financial Analyst (Paris FR)-(English-French-Japanese)
- Jacques Caouette, B.Sc. Industrial Designer -Technologist - (French-English)
- Ruben Mendez Paz, Construction Technologist - (Spanish-English)
- Eric Triesman, Attorney - (Recently passed away)
- Allen Huston,Construction Technologist - (English-Spanish)
- Javier Guerrero, Construction Technologist - (English-Spanish)
We are actively recruiting associate construction professionals. Please drop us a line here mentioning your related experience. Other skills in sociology, logistics, international Affairs, refugee affairs highly wished for. Weather scientists and experts to join soon.
ARCHITECTS
Because of their unique position between scientists/engineers and social workers/artists, architects are sometimes the best guarantors of the successful preventive construction as well as the secure rebuilding effort after a disaster. Because they take into account human behavior and local culture, they are well equipped to anticipate the use given to their building programs. Before the Indonesian tsunami, good architects had made upper floor balconies accessible from the street, thereby saving many lives when the high waves rolled in. In some cases, these resort stairs were accepted by the resort owners only after a fight, yet they saved many lives.More and more architects working with our Director Jacques Poirier. Most have had direct experience with construction under extreme conditions. Architect Robert Bianchi (Montréal) was involved with arctic construction, Marcello DelRio (Mexico) did the same within the tropical hurricane context. Others including Poirier himself worked with Habitat for Humanity and have had African and Asiatic experience like him.
MATHEMATICS
Out of fear or malice, mathematicians have been banned from construction sites ever since one was decapitated by a Pharaoh to avoid the future duplication of a most successful pyramid. Masons and carpenters loathe mathematics, and it certainly shows: almost every building material measures either 2x4x8(studs), 8x8x16(cinder blocks), 4x8 feet(sheatings of all kinds).
One could conclude that the multiplication x2 is the only intellectuality tolerated on a building site. As a result, everything built ends up rectangular. The average house has 16,000 ninety degree angles collecting dust.
Now if any of these otherwise fine tradesmen knew by heart the square root of three , they could actually build hexagonal floor plans and stop creating wasteful corners ! More to the point, they could actually graduate to rhombic maths where super strong space saving shapes could replace fragile orthogonal structures. When not perfectly built, these can skew, warp, twist and also get buffeted by strong winds. There are no large cubic structures in nature. Having a third horizontal axis as with hexagonal grid does wonders for earthquake and wind resistance. And to think! the bees have had that figured out hundreds of millions years ago*.
Note: Sure, you can approximate an hexagon by first scribing a circle and cutting down its perimeter at six intervals. But nothing accurate can occur unless you use a little trigonometry, the Tangent of 60 degrees, or...at the very least remember 1.732051, the square root of 3, a number that represents the ratio of the side of the hexagon to its narrowest width. If you visited the rest of this site, it will become obvious to you that from now on every child should remember 1.732051, the same number of digits as your average phone number. We can do it!
One could conclude that the multiplication x2 is the only intellectuality tolerated on a building site. As a result, everything built ends up rectangular. The average house has 16,000 ninety degree angles collecting dust.
Now if any of these otherwise fine tradesmen knew by heart the square root of three , they could actually build hexagonal floor plans and stop creating wasteful corners ! More to the point, they could actually graduate to rhombic maths where super strong space saving shapes could replace fragile orthogonal structures. When not perfectly built, these can skew, warp, twist and also get buffeted by strong winds. There are no large cubic structures in nature. Having a third horizontal axis as with hexagonal grid does wonders for earthquake and wind resistance. And to think! the bees have had that figured out hundreds of millions years ago*.
Note: Sure, you can approximate an hexagon by first scribing a circle and cutting down its perimeter at six intervals. But nothing accurate can occur unless you use a little trigonometry, the Tangent of 60 degrees, or...at the very least remember 1.732051, the square root of 3, a number that represents the ratio of the side of the hexagon to its narrowest width. If you visited the rest of this site, it will become obvious to you that from now on every child should remember 1.732051, the same number of digits as your average phone number. We can do it!
HURRICANE PROOF CONSTRUCTION
With over 1000 houses in several countries, some for almost 30 years, we were bound to have weathered a few hurricanes. The Caribbean beach resorts were successively exposed to Hugo, Frederic, David and a host of other hurricanes with no damage whatsoever. One occupant weathered Hugo from his living room bay window and commented
humoristically: "Inside, it's quiet and still while outside, it's a raging inferno. I felt I was sitting safely inside an ambulance looking out"
On September 5, 1995, as the worst storm to ever hit Sint Maarten (Dutch Antilles), hurricane Luis had wind
s of 185 mph gusting to over 200 mph (~340km). This category 5 hurricane had the bad idea to just sit on Guana Bay Beach for 12 straight hours, a horrible rarity causing $2B in damage. Over 80% of houses we damaged and the island closed down to tourism for a long time. Around our 40 condos, concrete swimming pools were floated away, all plants lost all leaves and then limbs, massive concrete block houses were thrown down, concrete sidewalks and bulkwalls were exploded by the boiling sea. Yet as an upcoming video to be seen here will show, we had a $2500 damage per house average, mostly acrylics for the upstairs balcony railings and a few outside AC units torn off. Out of 400, we lost one window. This did NOT happen by chance...and I was there in person, witnessing the entire event from unit #26. For the next two weeks, I scoured the island to find out WHAT BREAKS and WHAT RESISTS during a hurricane. This is my unofficial Post Graduate Study Program. Conclusion: You need to know that you never know enough, but you also need to share what you know better with all those around you. That is the leitmotiv of the ARCHIMEDE INSTITUTE
humoristically: "Inside, it's quiet and still while outside, it's a raging inferno. I felt I was sitting safely inside an ambulance looking out"On September 5, 1995, as the worst storm to ever hit Sint Maarten (Dutch Antilles), hurricane Luis had wind
s of 185 mph gusting to over 200 mph (~340km). This category 5 hurricane had the bad idea to just sit on Guana Bay Beach for 12 straight hours, a horrible rarity causing $2B in damage. Over 80% of houses we damaged and the island closed down to tourism for a long time. Around our 40 condos, concrete swimming pools were floated away, all plants lost all leaves and then limbs, massive concrete block houses were thrown down, concrete sidewalks and bulkwalls were exploded by the boiling sea. Yet as an upcoming video to be seen here will show, we had a $2500 damage per house average, mostly acrylics for the upstairs balcony railings and a few outside AC units torn off. Out of 400, we lost one window. This did NOT happen by chance...and I was there in person, witnessing the entire event from unit #26. For the next two weeks, I scoured the island to find out WHAT BREAKS and WHAT RESISTS during a hurricane. This is my unofficial Post Graduate Study Program. Conclusion: You need to know that you never know enough, but you also need to share what you know better with all those around you. That is the leitmotiv of the ARCHIMEDE INSTITUTE
TENTS AND WIND - A SERIOUS PROBLEM
FOUNDING CORPORATE SPONSORS
PrintSF is a first printing resource available on the 50,000 client base Salesforce.com
It's CEO and originator is a forty years old whiz who already made a fortune by reinventing how real estate is sold in California. Mark Cira was he young executive behind the real estate software that allows for 'paperless transactions' was a hit in Southern California. Now active in another venture with similar 'paperless' goals for the corporate printing, he nevertheless took the time to become a pilot an owner, founding SkyDiego two years ago. A generous man whose altruistic streak knows no borders, Mark was instrumental in advising as well as coming up with a founding donation of $2000.
TSUTSU
Most tsunamis have a 'run up' of no more than 1.5 m. Building our shelter on stilts takes care of those easily, especially i
f the columnar supports dont have permanent walls or other obstacles attached to them. Stairs and other light artifacts can be swept away with no strain of the building itself, although we recommend at least one self buttressing set of concrete stairs to allow beach uccupants to climb up to safety. The entire shelter is surrounded by a circular set of steel railing both to allow endangered people to hang on and climb aboard, and for protection of the building itself against floating debris. There are six entry points all around the structure to allow
admission of these people, with 3 doors and 6 windows.As with the Archimede beach resorts,
these structures are much appreciated since they do no block the views nor the access to the beach. Instead they provide shade and interesting paths to the beach itself.
Although the statistical approach is still very imperfect, the probabilities for a bigger tsunami are very real, one for instance that could generate a few run-ups of over 3 meters. In such a case, the shelter is still quite valid since the pressures expected on the shell are well handled by properties that have been known for almost thirty years. The behavior of the steel connectors and panels is entirely predictable in a symetrical arrangement of dodecahedral modules.
Also known is the fact that the 100-year tsunami could have a run-up of over 3 meters, one that would pressure the structure to the point of endangering its columns and their connection to ground or building. In such an occurence, a powerful upsurge on those conn
ectors would allow the entire building to float up thanks to sliding cylinders inserted into a sleeve cast into the concrete columns. Since the building itself has know flotation properties we can safely calculate that a crowd of 200 people can ride up the bigger waves with the building, the latter ajusting to the surge to a height of 3.5 to 4 meters.In the highly unlikely tsunamis that could heave the building beyond the reach if it's cylinders, The shelter would simply detach itself and float inland harmlessly, giving it a chance to pick-up more people in danger. Since the outflow of a tsunami of that size is loaded with debris, the building
would need to resist these pressure. The circular 'bumper7handrail' system will help deflect these problematic floating objects.On the other hand, since the building is truly unsinkable because of the rigid foam in its panels, a worse case scenario would involve perforation of the shell, floating out at sea and a panicking crowd that would collect all on one side, tilting the structure dramatically. This is why additional flotation is provided in the form of plastic drums set under the floor, creating a counter force to the asymetrical loading of the floor. This is also the reason why a second floor is helpful as in such a case water would harmlessly flood part of the ground floor. Nervous occupants could safely go upstairs or even on the roof, awaiting help. It is know that again in the worse case scenario the building would never be far at sea, would be essentially undamaged and could be cran
ed to its former site after inspection of the column system. If high capacity cranes ( 2 x 25-ton+ cap. each) were not available, again the worse case scenario would involve essentially unbolting 60 panels and re-attaching them by hand over the columns, essentially tightening 60 high capacity bolts with box wrenches. Of course in a case like this all the joints would have to be re-sprayed with urethane foam, an operation costing $2000 that can be carried out in one day. It would seem that there would be a lot of grateful volunteers for a job like this, repairing 'mama' after she took care of 200 people!
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