Glasforms Honored with Three Awards for Pultruded Bridge Deck at Composites Institute, International Composites Exposition 1999

May 28, 1999 - San Jose, Calif. - In an unprecedented sweep of the International Composites Exposition Show, Glasforms won three separate industry awards for their pultruded fiberglass reinforced Duraspan™ bridge deck, as molded for Martin Marietta Composites. The awards include:

1. "Best Product" for the "Infrastructure Market", sponsored by BP Amoco.
2. "Peoples Choice Award" for best overall new product, sponsored by DuPont.
3. "Innovation Design of Excellence Award" for the product that is determined to be superior to all others in manufacturing and design skill, market significance and its use of composite materials, sponsored by PPG Industries.

Glasforms competed against 35 final entries for the People's Choice and Innovation Design of Excellence Awards including twelve product categories for applications ranging from composite automobile chassis and aircraft wings to medical prosthetic devices. For the infrastructure category, Glasforms won the ICE award over three other products including another bridge deck system.

"I am proud to announce that the International Composites Exposition in Cincinnati, Ohio last week was the scene of great recognition for the Glasforms Team" said Glasforms, President and CEO, Peter Pfaff. "This prestigious conference showcases all of the latest and greatest new composite products," he continued.

Duraspan™ Bridge Deck is pultruded and factory assembled by Glasforms for Martin Marietta Materials in transportable, modular deck sections to displace conventional concrete decking for highway vehicle bridges.
 Large interconnecting deck beams, pultruded with quadraxial and triaxial fiberglass reinforced polyester, are pre-assembled for quick and easy installation on job sites. Composite bridge decks offer significant advantages over conventional concrete including minimal traffic disruption during construction, superior seismic safety, greater stiffness at one fifth the weight and long maintenance free life.

This new product is the fourth generation design of composite bridge deck succeeding its earlier version of bonding opposing pultruded trapezoidal beams between laminated skins. This earlier design was also an award winner at the 1998 ICE Conference for Best of the Market in the Infrastructure category. The new design shape integrates the two trapezoidal beams with male and female joints and surface skins into a single pultrusion for easier assembly and parts consolidation.

The bridge deck beam is 7.66" x 16" with varying wall thickness from .250" to .750", weighing 18.2 lbs per linear feet, making it one of the heaviest pultrusions ever produced. (For more information, please refer to our press release of this product introduction titled MMC's Latest Composite Bridge Design Features Glasforms Beams, dated March 17, 1999.)

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