- keep buildings intact through category 4 hurricanes;
- enable power lines to carry 2-3X more electricity;
- lessen environmental impact of construction projects;
- lighten the weight of pipelines.
This list could go on. That is one reason Elliott Company decided to sponsor NAPC. The Indianapolis-based company sees opportunities to lightweight pultruded applications, including sandwich panels, crossarms and tubes, with ELFOAM® polyisocyanurate rigid (PIR) foam core material. “Instead of having only resins and fibres in the pultruded product, you can insert foam into the process,” said Maryn Elliott, sales representative. “The space is filled with PIR foam, creating a lighter weight product.”
While conference participants shared Elliott’s positive outlook, they also focused on hurdles to pultrusion growth, especially in the construction industry.
Why is this? Speakers reiterated there is reluctance to change from using traditional materials. Material specifiers are not as familiar with pultruded composites as they are with steel, wood and concrete. New standards take years to publish. Plus, with a lot of cooks in the kitchen, it is hard to get everyone on the same recipe to give pultruded composites a chance.
ACMA is raising awareness. Projects are on the rise. The race is on to persuade decision-makers, from architects to building contractors, to integrate composite material systems.
Performance under pressure
In 2022, Hurricane Ian hit Florida with 241 km/h winds. Atmospheric pressure plummeted to 937 mbar. Normal mbar is about 1,031. Devastation was widespread. Through it all, a home under construction by Northstar Technologies stood strong.
Even with full internal exposure, the building’s FRP pultruded composite walls held secure. Openings in a structure allow high-speed winds to rush in, pushing against the roof. Before a hurricane, that is why these openings must be boarded up in homes made of traditional materials, such as wood or concrete block. Otherwise, the breach would cause the roof to blow off quickly. This was not the case for the Northstar project.
Security camera footage during Hurricane Ian: the home did not lean and sustained no structural damage (video stream distortion is due to extreme weather)
Hurricane-force winds and projectiles are one thing. Fire is another. Northstar’s FRP walls have passed ASTM E119 fire-resistance tests and NFPA 285 tests for vertical and lateral flame propagation.
“Pultruded composites have unprecedented strength vs other construction material systems,” said keynote speaker Paul Inglese, Northstar chair and CEO. “They are revolutionising construction by changing everything about it. We must prove it. We have the data.”
Speeding up electricity highways
Pultrusion is the key to rewiring or reconductoring global power lines so that they can carry at least twice the energy of today’s electric grids. Without this increased supply, our existing “electric highways” will struggle to support demand from electric vehicles, datacentres, computer chip factories and renewable energy generation.
Clement Hiel, Ph.D., and the late George Korzeniowski invented the aluminium conductor composite core reinforced cable (ACCC®) and filed for multiple patents in 2003. Their work was made possible through collaboration and investment from CTC-Global, which is assignee for the patent on ACCC and its manufacturing method. CTC-Global’s ACCC has been installed across 241,400 km of electric conductors in 66 countries.
“Reconductoring with ACCC is the electrical equivalent of replacing a two-lane highway with a four-lane highway,” said Dr Hiel.
Formerly with NASA, he is founder and president of Composite Support & Solutions Inc. (CSSI). At NAPC, he presented findings from a comparative analysis of ACCC vs the incumbent aluminium conductor steel reinforced (ACSR) cable. The study evaluated key performance indicators (KPI) for a 32-km stretch of 230 kV high-voltage power line:
| KPI | ACSR power cable (steel core) | ACCC® power cable (composite core) |
| Total installed cost | €44.6 million | €32 million |
| Line capacity: megavolt-amperes (MVA) | 359 MVA | 717 MVA |
| Cost Per MVA installed | €102,000/MVA | €44,700/MVA |
Installation speed is another advantage. Long expanses of ACSR conductors can be replaced with composite core cables within months. It can take years, sometimes a decade, to receive permits and build transmission towers with new power lines.
Exel Composites manufactures carbon-fibre composite cores for advanced conductors. Its Erlanger, Kentucky, facility is gearing up for anticipated US infrastructure investment in the electric grid. The efficiency of reconductoring is a key selling point at a time when the US federal government is hyper-focused on cost savings. “You’re simply pulling down the old conductor and putting in the new one,” said Francesco Ierullo, vice president, sales and marketing, Exel Engineered Solutions. “In a matter of weeks or months, you increase the amount of energy that you can transmit by 2 to 3 times compared with that of traditional ACSR conductors.”
Winning contracts: what will it take?
The United States has “archaic contract structures and procurement approaches,” said Brian Tracy, director of construction management, Ausonio Inc. He pointed to:
- misaligned incentives among project players;
- little room for risk and innovation;
- low margins on most projects;
- strict specifications that leave little room for substitutes;
- entrenched lobbyists for traditional building materials.
This business model will not change overnight. However, politics could speed things along US Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright wants to strengthen the electric grid. US Senator Angus King, Maine, has championed reconductoring as a cost-efficient way to upgrade the grid. He has challenged the status quo, saying that utility companies reap greater financial rewards from building vs retrofitting.
In addition to political lobbying, ACMA is making inroads with the energy industry from the ground up. It regularly conducts education and safety workshops for power linemen, familiarising them with pultruded composite electric poles. The association also offers Certified Composites Technician (CCT) training and composites materials specification courses.
Pultruded composite building systems make a compelling case amid urgent calls for more electricity and stronger infrastructure. They vie for attention across a vast construction industry, but their advantages are claiming more share of the spotlight.
Lu public network security: 37140202000173
