Nu-Tech developed state of the art technology to enable us to produce STRUCTURALCOMB™ PANELS which are used by builders to construct affordable panelized homes. Our panelized homes are superior to any building materials being used today, whether it be stick building, pre-cast concrete walls, manufactured homes, pre-fabricated homes and concrete block construction.

Our panelized homes, when completed, are manufactured with a honeycomb paper core bonded to fiber cement boards that are also insulated to provide up to R-52 insulation,. Each panel is a structural wall bearing panel utilizing our proprietary composite fiber plastic framing studs, which are far superior to any stick framing and batt insulation method, and the best part is the fact that our panelized homes can be produced at 70% less than the standard stick built home. And yet, when the home is completed, one cannot tell the difference between our panelized built home and a stick built home.

Insulated STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels offer triple insulation against heat, cold, and sound.

Specifics:

High strength-weight ratio  Excellent rapidity-weight ratio  Exceptional insulating properties  Waterproof  Fireproof

Bug and vermin proof  Fungus proof  Long life durability  Unlimited design flexibility

Our proprietary building systems are fully documented and tested, procedures for manufacturing the honeycomb paper core and the manufacturing processes and machinery in the manufacture of our modular wall panels. The technology is fully documented with complete systems integrated in a computer software at the final assembly section, enabling the final finishing of each panel to be modified at the finishing assembly department, whereas each structural wall panel is prepared detailing which panel requires electrical wiring, electrical outlets, plumbing, windows, etc., so that when each panel is pre fitted with all the connections and is sequentially numbered for a specific model home, the panels are then delivered to the home site for final construction and erection of the home on a slab foundation in place. It takes a crew of 5 to 8 men, to assemble the shell in accordance to the sequence of panel installation instructions. The entire shell of the house, including flooring, exterior and interior walls, ceilings and roofing is completely installed within 3 to 5 days (on a typical 1,600 square foot house). The house is then ready for final finishing, which includes cabinetry installation, appliances, connection of plumbing fixtures, and flooring finishes and wall paint. The exterior normally is finished with a liquid spray of stucco, or if desired, finished with bricks, or siding or simulated wood siding or other finishes desired by the builder/developer.

Technology for the 21st Century

PANELIZEDHOMEÔ MODULAR building panels are the result of several years of patent work and design, research, engineering, and testing of a combination of the most common and inexpensive building materials available today, such as: sand, cement, paper, plastic, phenolic resins, fiber cement, and adhesive, plus various insulation materials.

These materials are put together in such a way as to produce a low-cost, high-strength rigid building panels capable of becoming a structural member of a building, thus eliminating presently expensive building materials and the high skills required to put them together.

Homes built with our wall panels look just like any other conventional homes being built today, and one cannot tell the difference. Our homes can withstand hurricane force winds of up to 150 miles an hour, and are impervious to water damage. The materials used in our building modular wall panels have been classified by FEMA as “FLOOD PROOF” and approved for FEMA HOUSING in flood Hazard areas (FEMA Bulletin No. 2-93.) The Army Corps of Engineers released a report that our panelling material met their Flood Proofing Regulation in flood insurance areas. Furthermore, the interior and exterior of our wall panels have met or exceeded compliance as per HUD Report No. 1263-C (October 23, 2002) and HUD Report No. 1286-C (March 13, 2002).

Our modular wall panels is the focal point of our system. Although the panels are built at the factory, our homes should not be confused or compared to mobile home and manufactured home when describing affordable manufactured housing. Mobile homes, generally do not meet the building codes of most communities, and is generally not permitted to be placed on any property that is zoned for single-family housing. The only type of manufactured housing that meets building codes standards are modular homes, which are more costly and not generally consider in the affordable housing category.(12)

The proprietary modular wall panel system built by Nu-Tech is far superior in quality and durability to any other manufactured panelized home or conventional stick built home for reasons explained in the foregoing material under technical specifications.

The use of honeycomb panels as a building component is not a new concept, although our technology is. It has been developed, tested, improved upon over the past fifty years. Every major U.S. Building code authority has approved honeycomb panels for housing, including U.S. Government, FHA, HUD and the Corps of Engineers.

The Many Advantages of building a home with our structuralcomb modular wall panels:

• Simplifies construction: Modular walls integrate structure with insulation. The frame of the home and the thermal envelope are one and the same.

• Residential labor costs are much lower than stick building because no skilled workers are required. Novice crews can easily install the exterior walls with a 5 man crew in usually one to two days for an average 1,600 square foot home. Roof, floors, ceilings can be done in one week, once again, with unskilled labor, with final finishing taking another week, with a finished home ready to move in Design Flexibility – There are fewer restrictions to design. Our modular panels can be manufactured in 8, 10 and 12 foot heights.
• Finishes can be applied easily. Fiber cement surface provides a sturdy and continuous nail and screw base to which exterior and interior finishing material can be easily attached.

• Pre-cut electrical chases have been built into every panels so that the wiring of the outer walls can be easily done.

• Superior strength. Monolithic shell can withstand seismic forces better than stick built homes.

• Quality: Structuralcomb panel walls are straight and flat with no bulging framing members. This is virtually impossible to achieve with old-fashioned stick framing.

Technical Specifications

STRUCTURALCOMB™ modular wall panels are an entirely-new building materials. The core of these “sandwich” panels is a cellular “honeycomb” core of Kraft fiber stock impregnated with phenolic resin to resist moisture, decay and attack by pests and fungi. This honeycomb core is faced on both sides with smooth or textured fiber cement panels or with smooth surfaced sheet rock on the inside for exterior panels. Interior wall panels can be finished with fiber cement panels or with sheet rock panels, or with wood veneer. The wall panels can also be finished with magnesium oxide boards for industrial or medical construction.

When used as partitions, these remarkable panels form a complete wall section, permitting substantial savings in material costs and installation time.

• SRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are one of the strongest available building panels in relation to weight. They carry very high shear stresses, resist tension and compression loads normal to the face of the panel, and resist tension and compression loads normal to the face of the panel, and resist buckling up to the combined yield strengths of the panel members.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels enjoy an excellent rigidity-to-weight ratio. They are constructed by method similar to those used in our supersonic aircraft and space-probes, utilizing many of the “breakthrough” techniques thought impossible only a few years ago.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are filled with various insulating materials (see Forest Products Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Publication No. 1952 in Appendix A) which produce excellent insulation against heat, cold, and sound. They keep heat in – cold out, and allow a very low level of sound transfer.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panel materials are treated with phenolic resin to produce waterproof panels with high resistance to moisture. This same phenolic resin (which has a formaldehyde base) makes the panels safe from termites, other destroying insects, and vermin. It also prevents the growth of fungus and other molds, thus giving a fresh environment at all times.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are completely fireproof when the combustible materials are treated with space-age, fire-retardant chemicals. (Fire tests were performed by UC Berkeley).

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels offer extra long life due to the highly durable qualities of the materials which make up the panels. This durability is a combination of the natural qualities of the materials plus space-age processing techniques.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels offer architects almost unlimited design flexibility due to the use of modular-panel concepts.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are fabricated under an aerospace quality control programs as follows:

1. All materials are purchased under certification as to their origin, specifications, strengths, age, manufacturing techniques, etc.

2. Exterior wall panels are 6 inches thick, and come in sizes of 4 feet by 8 feet or 4 x 10, and consists of impregnated-paper honeycomb core, 5 inches thick, cell size 1 ½ inches, which is then bonded to an interior sheet of ½-inch fiber cement board and to an exterior sheet of ½-inch fiber cement board or siding which has been processed to receive cement plaster in a keyed manner. After the panel has been installed, the exterior receives ½ to 1 inch of colored cement plaster which becomes the exterior finish. (A veneer of various siding, i.e., brick, board, etc., may be applied over the finish). Panels used for interior walls are 4 inches thick, with a 3 inch thick honeycomb core, cell size 1 ½ inches, bonded to a fiber cement board of ¼ inch thick on each side.

A 4 by 8 panel will support a dead load in excess of 10,000 pound (see American Cement Corporation testing report in Appendix B). The I.C.B.O. code requirements for a 4-foot span is 800 pounds, thus making a STRUCTURALCOMB™ panel approximately 12 times stronger than minimum required.

The independently sealed honeycomb cells then offer triple insulation against the transfer of heat, cold, and sound. Where additional insulation is required and an extremely low “K” factor is desired, the complete honeycomb core is filled with various insulation materials (see Appendix A).

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels, with design and material variations, lend themselves to floor panels, wall panels, and roof panels with equal suitability (see Appendix F).

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are ideally suited for any geographical location due to their ability to withstand the weather and environmental conditions found in extreme northern and southern climates. Tropical and high humidity conditions have little or no effect upon treated panels.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels enjoy long life with no maintenance, once they are installed and finished. Should they become damaged for any reason, they are easily repairable simply by cutting out the damaged section and patching with the same original materials.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels have been designed following the guidelines of Structural Sandwich design Criteria (see F.P.L. Publication No. 2161 in Appendix D and engineering calculations in Section 5).

Honeycomb panels evolutionary to STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels have been under laboratory and field tests since 1947 by Forest Products Laboratories in Madison, Wisconsin. For a complete report on these results, refer to U.S. Forest Service Research Paper, F.P.L. 12, May 1964, in Appendix. E.

STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are erected in the field by low-skilled personnel. They are started on a plumbed corner post, set in place over a 2 by 4 base plate. Each panel has a 2-inch tongue and groove for easy-keyed assembly. All panels are numbered for foolproof assembly from simple building plans. Structure fabricated from STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are then finished and completed by standard and conventional method. The appearance of buildings using STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels is identical to that of building using conventional construction techniques.

STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are approved by:

I.C.B.O. International Conference of Building Officials

F.H.A. United States Federal Housing Administration

U.B.C. Uniform Building Code

State of California approval

Malaysia SIRIM and BOMBA 1 hour fire Rating

Specifically, STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are over 31 times stronger than required by the U.B.C. Code. The STRUCTURALCOMB™ window panel is over 6 times stringer than the U.B.C. requirement.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panel using regular gypsum board has a one-hour fire rating. Using type James Hardee fiber cement panels, the panels have been tested at 0 in terms of fire spread. The panels are therefore completely fireproof. The resin impregnated fiber core will not support flame. The adhesive is non-combustible.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are sound deadening. Average transmission loss (TL) of Sound Attenuation in decibels is 32 using fiber cement face sheets without coating.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are made with phenolic resin to produce panels with high resistance to moisture. This same phenolic resin, which has a formaldehyde base, makes the panels safe from termites, other destroying insects, and vermin. It also prevents the growth of fungus and other molds.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ core material has been tested by Forest Products testing laboratories for more than 29 years. Performance of honeycomb sandwich panels in the experimental test unit for over 29 years indicate that “panels of nominal thickness and construction can be used for housing construction. Minimum stiffness and strength requirements are easily achieved… even after longtime exposure”.

Finally, “the requirements for satisfactory sandwich panels are selection of proper combination of facings, core and adhesive, careful fabrication techniques, and good quality control.” STRUCTURALCOMB™ takes great care to fulfill all of these requirements in order to insure buyer satisfaction and STRUCTURALCOMB™’s reputation.

• STRUCTURALCOMB™ panels are patented and it is our intention to closely control quality by a program carried through the original manufacturing of the panel to its erection and finish on the job site.

Cross Section of a Modular Honeycomb core Wall Panel

Framing Technology: We do not use wood or steel for framing. All framing and roof joists are made from composite materials produced in our factory. This allows superior materials to replace common materials. A stronger, safer, longer lasting home of any design can be made at our factory.

Strength: An optimized pulltruded composite stud with a 1/8 inch thickness has a compressive strength of 60,000 PSI compared to 1,000 PSI for kiln dried 2 X 4 Douglas Fir select grade wood at 12% moisture. The flexural strength of the composite stud is 70,000 PSI compared to 7,000 PSI for wood. In other words, each composite stud has 10 times the flexural strength of wood stud it replaces.

Additionally wood loses compressive strength as the moisture content goes up. 2% moisture kiln dried pine loses 50% of its compressive strength at 12% moisture and 70% of its compressive strength at 22% moisture. Wet wood is not very strong.

Framing Material: Framing Studs are made from a composite of fiberglass (recyclable materials) and phenolic resin. The is the same material used in aircraft construction. Phenolic resin composites are very strong, have moderate toughness and recover 99%, just like a bow after shooting an arrow. The framing studs have been tested and certified to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes and flooding, since they are water, termite, rodent, fire and mold resistant. The composite framing does not conduct electricity and is transparent to electrical signals, unlike steel framing.