Not so much the structure as the material - glazed ethyl tetra fluoro ethylene (ETFE) foil life of 30 years. It is self cleaning, anti-static, very strong, transparent to UV light and is not degraded by sunlight.
ETFE (Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene Copolymer)
Trade Name: Tefzel ®
Du Pont developed this material as ‘‘Tough Fluoropolymer’’. It is a normal thermoplastic but it is much harder than PTFE & FEP and similar in hardness to nylon, and is therefore used as an ‘‘Engineering Plastic’’. The improvement in stiffness is paid for by reduced chemical resistance and working temperature.
ETFE is great stuff... the cushion foils used in the edens project span 10m each! absolutely incredible!
structuraly very sound, completely transparent, sturdy and durable, AND, since they are for the most part pockets of air, thier insulative values are pretty damn good as well.
Foil-tec is a german company i believe who is doing really good work with cushion foils... there is another in the UK, but the name escapes me right now... great material, endless possibilities
Grimshaw Pnuematics
Anyone know any good resources on pnuematic structures. I am interested in the technology employed in the EDEN PROJECT by N.Grimshaw.
Not so much the structure as the material - glazed ethyl tetra fluoro ethylene (ETFE) foil life of 30 years. It is self cleaning, anti-static, very strong, transparent to UV light and is not degraded by sunlight.
ETFE (Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene Copolymer)
Trade Name: Tefzel ®
Du Pont developed this material as ‘‘Tough Fluoropolymer’’. It is a normal thermoplastic but it is much harder than PTFE & FEP and similar in hardness to nylon, and is therefore used as an ‘‘Engineering Plastic’’. The improvement in stiffness is paid for by reduced chemical resistance and working temperature.
BOTS - you the man!
ETFE is great stuff... the cushion foils used in the edens project span 10m each! absolutely incredible!
structuraly very sound, completely transparent, sturdy and durable, AND, since they are for the most part pockets of air, thier insulative values are pretty damn good as well.
Foil-tec is a german company i believe who is doing really good work with cushion foils... there is another in the UK, but the name escapes me right now... great material, endless possibilities
Dupont are the manufacturers of Tefzel.
I've said that already so here is an alternative project using the stuff.
The National Science Centre in Leicester, UK
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