Infra Composites | Lightweight and sustainable composites | infra, composites. lightweight, structures, safety, barrier, lighting, column, crash, cones, trucks

Infra Composites B.V.

Location Breukelen (production and sales)
Keulschevaart 7, 3621 MX Breukelen
tel 0346-259290
g.takke@infracomposites.com

Location Delft (engineering and sales)
Rotterdamseweg 380, 2629 HG Delft
tel 015-2786404
a.verheus@infracomposites.com

Chamber of commerce nr 51788845

Lightweight and sustainable composites

Infra Composites B.V. designs, engineers, produces and sells composite civil structures. Composites are fibre reinforced plastics, mostly glass fibre reinforced polyester (also known as GRP or FRP). Our bridge decks are so-called sandwiches of glass fibre reinforced polyester skins with a sandwich core of foam or balsa.

This material is widely used in the yacht building industry where because of its strength, durability, low weight and ease of shaping. Exactly these properties are helpful to build efficient bridges.

Moreover, we produce our composite parts with the ecologically sound process called vacuum infusion.



Vacuum infusion of an ECOSAFE VD200 bridge deck panel

Composites are durable and sustainable due to their long lifetime without noteworthy maintenance (composites do not rot or rust) and low environmental impact.


Environmental impact of construction materials The total life cycle (construction, maintenance, repair and end of life after 100 years) was investigated. Composite bridges perform twice better than concrete and steel in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

glass fibre composite carbon fibre composite concrete steel		A 12 meter bridge constructed with composite materials will save 1300 and 2700 GigaJoule of energy compared to concrete and steel respectively. That was concluded by BECO that carried out a life cycle analysis. Environmental impact was compared using three criteria: energy content in GigaJoule, carbon foot print in CO2 equivalents and Eco indicator 99.

Weighty advantages of lightweight structures

Lightweight structures augment the competitive advantage for both users and suppliers in markets where operational costs and higher efficiency are the prime considerations. The market where lightweight engineering plays the most prominent role in the aircraft industry. In the past 100 years a number of leaps in material use are recognized, optimizing the ratio of structural strength and stiffness and weight (E/ρ and σ/ρ), in order to improve efficiency (increase payload and safety).



Wright Flyer (1903) wood / linnen	Fokker 8 (1927) wood / linnen / steel

DC-2 (1934) steel / aluminium	Boeing 7E7 (2007) 60% composites

Similar leaps in material technology are recognized or predicted in other markets where structural weight is influencing performance (speed, safety) or costs (fuel, maintenance, labour): all that fly, sail or drive, or are lifted my man. Or moveable bridges for example. Or bridges that should be installed in poorly accessible areas. Or bridges that should be installed fast, crossing railway tracks or in city centres.

The operational returns of lightweight structures often outweigh the extra costs of redesign or the higher costs of materials - certainly when the lifespan of the structure is included in the comparison.