Misplaced Pages

Structural insulated panel

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 66.69.212.60 (talk) at 20:13, 22 March 2006 (→External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 20:13, 22 March 2006 by 66.69.212.60 (talk) (→External links)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Structural insulated panels (or structural insulating panels), SIPs, are a composite building material. They consist of a sandwich of two layers of structural board with an insulating layer of foam in between. The board is usually Oriented Strand Board (OSB) and the foam either polystyrene foam or polyurethane foam.

SIPs allow the application of an internal and external structural skin and thermal insulation to a building in one stage, offering efficiency benefits. They are commonly use in conjunction with modern timber framed buildings.

History

Although foam-core panels gained attention in the 1970s, the idea of using stress skinned panels for construction began in the 1930s. Research and testing of the technology was done primarily by Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) in Madison, Wisconsin as part of U.S. Forest Service's attempts to conserve forest resources. In 1937, a small stressed-skin house was constructed and garnered enough attention to bring in First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to dedicate the house. As a testament to the durability of panel structures it has endured the severe Wisconsin climate and is currently being used by University of Wisconsin as a day care center. With the success of the stress skinned panels it was reasoned stronger skins could take all of the structural load and eliminate the frame altogether.

Thus in 1947, structural insulated panel development began with corrugated paperboard cores were tested with various skin materials of plywood, tempered hardboard and treated paperboard. The building was deconstructed in 1978 and most of the panels retained their original strength with the exception of paperboard which is unsuited to outdoor exposure. Panels consisting of polystyrene core and paper overlaid with plywood skins were used in a building in 1967 and the panels have performed well to the present day.

Then in the early 1980s "Hoot" Haddock, a former construction manager for the Alaska pipeline, began research on a cement skinned panel system called ThermaSAVE to withstand the harsh Alaskan climate.

External links

Categories: