Korwall Industries have been building sandwich panels since 1958. In those early days we used honeycomb for core and plywood for the skins.
All the volume for such new products was in the mobile home and the recreational vehicle Industry and those were our only customers for many years. Much has changed in all that time as you know. Our energy
efficiency is very important and keeping cost down also. Since 1973 we have been building and marketing
whereever possible the Expanded
Polystyrene Sandwich Panel. Also in 1973 a waferboard plant in Minnesota
started making large sheets of material in the standard thicknesses.
Sandwich construction came out of the aricraft industry in the late 30's.
They took aluminum H/C and bonded very thin skins to that for a very
strong, light weight, structure for wings, fuselage, bulkheads and floors.
Their strength is in the H/C and not the skins. We reversed that idea and
bonded our 3/8" waferboard skins to E.P.S for structural panesl 8' wide
and 24' long with no seams.
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In 1979 the energy crises devasted the mobile home and recreational
vehicle Industry and we turned to the housing market to market our product.
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We found lots of built in headwind as everyone does who has something
new and better to offer. We found that we couldn't just build panels in
volume for a low price. We had to design and build the whole house and
then hope to sell it. We also found that the housing market was top
heavy with regulations and codes. Our sandwich panel had as much of an
acceptance problem as sheet rock or plastic plumbing when they were
first introduced in the home building industry.
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We had a display of our product at the past NAHB show in January in
Dallas, Texas. We found that 90% of the people had heard of the
sandwich panel construction and they were mostly builders. We spent
most of our time explaining the structural benefits of the system.
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In 1984, we built our own testing facility and tested our own panels
for racking and shear, axial and transverse loading. We hired a
professional engineer to run our test and submitted all our
findings and support data to the council of American Building Officials
(C.A.B.O.). This C.A.B.O. is the composit of I.C.B.O. U.B.C., B.O.C.O.
and S.B.C.C. This year the B.O.C.A. is the secretariet for this group.
It took a long time to satisfy all of this groups reservations about the
sandwich construction, but we finally did.
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It is now time to begin building low cost energy efficient houses for
young newly wed and retirees. Low utility bills are also a must and our
sandwich panel does all of these. An example of the cost savings for builders is that these house kits go up in two days, thus cutting
you on sight labor way down. It is our opinion that all builders are going to have
to have an air infilteration (or air exchange) test run on their house
after they are built. You know all about the R values and how ambiguous these
ratings are, but with an air exchange test the owner and the lender will know
exactly how energy efficient the house is. Our system answers all of this as well.
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Our know how and engineering were put to the test and in the summer of 1999
we took on a 11,000 sq. ft. dwelling for 2 families totaling 9 people in west Plano, Texas.
There were 8 bath rooms, 2 kitchens, 11 bedrooms, 2 courtyards,
a movie theater and much living room space. It is a two story and
has a 5 car garage. It has arch ways, round and ellipse windows and
huge entry way doors. Needless to say it was a real challenge to our people but
we did it and made every delivery on time so as not to hold up the completion.
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Our Product is just now, after 44 years, getting the attention of home
buyers and architects. We look forward to a larger share of the home building
market every year and doing our part in the energy conservation department.
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Sincerely,
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Stan Dimmick, President
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Korwall Industries, Inc.
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