2013 Media Coverage

News & Feature Stories about ACH Foam Technologies & the Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Industry

 
Midstream Business
November/December 2013
 
Who says big solutions can't come in lightweight packages?  Earthquakes and soil movement are potentially big problems for a pipeline.  There are several methods for mitigating the effects of seismic activity on infrastructure, one of which is EPS Geofoam, a polystyrene geotechnical product used in fill applications where a lightweight material is required to reduce stresses on underlying soils or lateral pressures.  It forms a seismic buffer for buried structures and rigid retaining walls.  Read More.
 

CE News
September 2013
 
There are several methods for mitigating the effects of seismic activity on infrastructure, including the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam as a seismic buffer for buried structures and rigid retaining walls. Six years ago, Canadian engineers Richard Bathurst, Saman Zarnani, and Andrew Gaskin showed with shaking table testing and numerical modeling that geofoam could reduce the seismic forces on rigid retaining walls (Bathhurst, et al., 2007). The lightweight EPS blocks used with highway embankments, green roofs, and landscape fill are growing in popularity for seismic and other buried applications.  Read More.
Geosynthetics
August 2013
 
About 30 miles east of Salina, Utah, nestled in the western bituminous region of Sevier County, is Convulsion Canyon, home of an underground coal mine. In the fall of 2012, the mining company determined that it would be advantageous to construct a storage building above the underground tunnels. But the haulage tunnel, which was buried an average of 12ft below the existing grade, was not adequate to support the necessary loads.  Several options were evaluated to support the load of the storage building but only one option could provide the most flexibility for the positioning of the building: geofoam.  Read More.

Turf Design Build
July 2013
 
Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., wanted to build a 25,000-square-foot, multimillion dollar building to serve as the centerpiece of academic life beginning this fall.  The college knew of a perfect location to maximize its use but it was situated on a steep slope.  Backfilling the soil wasn't an option.  Enter the use of geofoam.  Read More.
 

Architectural Roofing & Waterproofing
Summer 2013
 
Structural Insulated panels (SIPs) typically consist of an insulating foam core sandwiched between two structural facings, such as oriented strand board (OSB).  Their rigidity and insulating properties can benefit a multitude of roof and wall applications, as illustrated by three different projects in Kansas: a church, a single-family home, and a fire station.  Read More.
 
Professional Roofing
June 2013
 
Badger State Fruit Processing Plant, Pittsville, Wis., recently added a new 186,000-square-foot cold-storage facility to house 200 million pounds of cranberries from its 1,100 acres.  The cold-storage facility was designed to withstand many years of operation while achieving demanding temperature-control.  
 
About half the roof system was constructed to meet freezer conditions, and the other half was constructed for cooler conditions.  ACH Foam Technologies' Foam-Control Plus+ 400 was laid on the rooftop of the freezer area and Foam-Control Plus+ 250 on the cooler area.  Read More.

Government Engineering
June 2013
 
Geofoam protects pipelines from catastrophic effects of seismic shifts.  According to the US Geological Survey, there are 14,000 earthquakes worldwide each year that have a magnitude of four or greater-700 of which occur in the US and Alaska.  There are several methods for mitigating the effects of seismic activity on infrastructure, including the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam as a seismic buffer for buried structures and rigid retaining walls.  Read More.
Modern Contractor Solutions
June 2013
 
Mike Gibson of Murray & Sons Construction was the contractor on the Manhattan, Kansas, fire stations 3 and 5. He appreciates that the owner and architect on the project had the foresight to specify SIPs (structural insulated panels) for what he calls a “flagship community building.”
 
“This is as cool a design as we’ve ever seen,” Gibson quips. “People often have a preconceived notion of what a SIPs building looks like. What’s super cool about this is that, unless you know that SIPs were used to build the fire station, you would have no idea by looking at the finished design that it was constructed with prefabricated panels.”  Read More.

North American Oil & Gas Pipelines
May 2013

EPS Geofoam Protects Pipelines from Earthquakes.  On Dec. 26, a gas pipeline blast followed by a mild earthquake struck Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.  According to the US Geological Survey, there are 14,000 earthquakes worldwide each year. 

Today the spotlight is shining on geofoam as the material with great potential for protecting pipelines.  "If an earthquakes occurs, high-pressure gas lines are one of the most important items to protect," claims Steven Bartlett, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Utah.   Read More.

Wine Business Monthly
May 2013

ACH Foam Technologies, maker of WineLoc thermal summer wine shippers, has reconfigured their design to offer added packaging options and increased protection of bottles during transit.


ACH developed the WineLoc® package system to provide wineries and distributors a constant stable temperature for approximately 72 hours—allowing wines to be shipped in the hot summer months. Tested to meet ISTA-7E temperature standards, the 2-, 6-, and 12-pack EPS foam units are contained within a corrugated cardboard outer carton and utilize specially designed pockets that hold frozen gel refrigerants and allow internal airflow. These refrigerants are designed specifically for the maximum amount of wine possible in the package, keeping the wine at or below 80°F for up to 72 hours.  Read More.


Walls & Ceilings
February 2013

Why three Kansas community buildings were erected with SIPs.

PROJECT 1:  Risen Savior Lutheran Church in Basehor, Kansas.  
PROJECT 2:  Kansas City Housing Authority’s YouthBuild program.
PROJECT 3:  Manhattan, Kansas Firestations 3 and 5.   Read More.
 


Environmental Design + Construction
January 2013
 
Badger State Fruit Processing (a cold storage facility) finds ways to institute temperature control, manage operating cost and be more sustainable.  Nearly 2 million board feet of ACH Foam Technologies’ Foam-Control flat EPS roof insulation and more than half a million board feet of the manufacturer’s new Foam-Control Plus+ architectural grade perimeter and underslab insulation were used in the construction of the new cold-storage facility this summer.  Read More.