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says its FRP siding is being used in more retrofitting projects.
Fiberglass siding has two primary applications. It is used in situations where there is a highly-corrosive environment (such as a fertilizer facility or salt shed) and when building owners want natural light to shine in their facilities. Though there hasn’t been much of a change in general fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) use, one area where FRP is growing is retrofitting.
Retrofitting is most common in older factories that were built with a large number of glass windows. “The glass tends to break and is costly to replace. We sell the owners large fiberglass sheets that go across the existing windows and cover them. It lets light in without replacing the glass planes,” says Michael Tobias, president of Dipcraft Manufacturing. The sheets are applied only on the outside, and while this doesn’t repair the glass, the benefits are cosmetic. “It makes the building looks a lot better because the material still lets light in, but you won’t see the broken panes behind it. It’s like an insulation barrier.”
The panels are a composite of a fiberglass mesh, which is usually a chopped strand and woven cloth, embedded in a polyester resin base. The panels are manufactured in a process similar to continuous casting; they come through a series of dyes and the mat is chopped into the resin, which is then heated, and its set and a chemical process hardens the panels that come down the line into a particular shape depending on the tooling. The panels are then cut to length as they go down the line.
Generally speaking, FRP panels aren’t necessarily meant to replace metal, or vice versa. “Both materials have their place, and they’re not interchangeable,” says Tobias. “It’s very common for FRP panels to nestle with metal; a lot of our panels are designed with that in mind.”
Dipcraft is a small business, catering to many customers via phone who want to either nestle existing panel beneath window panes while or want to replace the panes entirely. “Whatever situation they ask for, we email them some pictures of existing jobs so they get ideas on how to do it,” says Tobias.
Certain elemental factors also play a part in how the panel will be manufactured. Because panels can be made in different weights and profiles, some are stronger by virtue of the geometry of the panel. Weather is also a factor, as the panels are made differently depending on the climate. “There are considerations depending on the grade of the panel: the heavier the panel, the longer it’ll last in the field,” says Tobias.
It is important for all of these details to be ironed out early in the process because of the sheer number of loads Dipcraft sends to the facilities. If something is wrong, that’s a huge setback. “If they’re trying to nestle an existing panel, they’ll have problems with leakage if the overlaps aren’t done properly,” Tobias notes. The shape is the toughest item to figure out, and Dipcraft often requires facility owners to send a piece of existing panel, a drawing or a photo.
The decline in building construction has hurt business, but the company believes retrofitting will help them through the tough times. “Many of the buildings that need repair feature panels that were manufactured decades ago. Those companies are now out of business, and because we can implement a variety of shapes in the panel design, that’s a niche we believe we can fill,” says Tobias.
