FRP makers push Washington on funding, standards

摘要

The plastics composites industry is making a push for government support to develop standards for fiber-reinforced polymers in roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects, seeing it as way to build some much-needed acceptance of the material. At an April 18 hearing before a House subcommittee on science and technology, industry executives and others urged Congress to budget money for a five-year project to develop the same kind of standards for plastics composites that they say legacy materials like steel and concrete already have. Shane Weyant, CEO of Creative Pultrusions Inc. in Alum Bank, Pa., told the committee that FRP can last longer and be cheaper than conventional materials over the lifespan of a product. But sizable barriers remain to more widespread use in government projects."What we know from experience is that the lack of awareness of and importantly standards for composites is our threshold problem," he testified. The effort would be spearheaded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the Department of Commerce. It grows out of a NIST report from December and a year-long effort to identify barriers to greater use of FRP in infrastructure projects. In its report, NIST said composites could provide an attractive "price-performance tradeoff" to reduce the cost to rebuild infrastructure in the United States.. The agency estimated infrastructure needs in the U.S. call for about $460 billion a year in spending through 2025, well above current actual spending of $250 billion.