The Inflatable The construction plan for the bridge is as following. Polyester strips from Scantarp, a leading producer of coated textiles in Northern Europe, with a width of 2 meter are welded together to form the stamped shape of the infl atable. All this is done by Poly-Ned, a company in Holland specialized in textile architecture. They provided us, besides all the knowledge, the right equipment and a huge production hall. In two weeks, we made an infl atable with an surface of 2500 m2 and a weight of 1600 kg. The inflatable is then folded and shipped to the building site in Finland, together with the rope net, which is also produces in the Netherlands and sponsored by Chr. Muller Touw. After that the inflatable will be unrolled and the rope net and the steel cables provided by Mammoet are laid out over the inflatable and attached to the anchors. Now the infl atable is ready for infl ation. The pressure is slowly build up to 0,5 kN/m2 . After this pressure is reached the infl atable can be sprayed with the ice composite. Layer by layer the bridge will be build up until the correct shape is reached. Poly-Ned is active in ‘Textile-architecture’: functional and aesthetic design using textile and wire mesh fabric that may be provided with functional and aesthetic coatings and/or printed material. The company based in Steenwijk, has over 35 years’ experience in the production of infl atable structures, and would like to share this knowledge. As with enthusiastic students and staff of Faculty of Architecture TU Eindhoven. Early this year, a signifi cant number of students from TU / e, led by Arno Pronk already start the 3rd ice building challenge : Bridge in Ice by Leonardo Da Vinci. A prestigious project, which unfortunately could not be fully completed by the high temperature in Finland. Beside knowledge Poly-Ned is providing workspace and the use of necessary equipment. The material needed for the projects will be provided by one of the suppliers. Given the pleasant cooperation and mutual commitment Poly-Ned will certainly open its doors to a 4th challenge. Poly-Ned 26
27 Online Touch Home