Membrane Structures: Structures in Growing Trend

Membrane Structures:

The light and freeform structure to span a long distance with the usage of minimum material (such as steel cables, columns, membrane) in their manufacturing is Membrane Structures. Besides offering many interesting possibilities ranging from railway platform roofing to sports complex, these structures are highly energy-efficient & save much money in transportation too. In the urban region, membrane structures are traditionally designed as structures with high curvature, and nowadays more and more as flat structures, in highly aesthetic way. Additionally, these roofing membrane structures begin to mixed with glass in order to produce bright filled spaces.

Key Reasoning behind their Growing Trend:

In Architectural Industry, Membrane structures have been used for more than 50 years. Besides their increasing popularity in architectural design & abundance within buildings, the main concern is to recognize the reason behind the increasing trend and growing popularity in almost every sphere of life whether it is commercial, residential or industrial. The key reasons are as follows:

• Aesthetic Design with fashion sense: Membrane structures can be easily manipulated into various types of shapes and are rich in color. Formation of Aesthetic night scenes with the coordination of light, gives membrane structures a competitive edge with today’s high-tech modern buildings.
• Less Energy Consumption: Membrane material used in the structures is relatively good in transmission of light (with 7% to 20% transmittance), not only makes full use of natural light, but also consumes least energy. This makes people feel good and dreamlike.
• Rapid Construction: The tailoring of membrane diaphragms, the manufacturing of steel cables, steel structures etc. are finished in factories. Only linkage, positioning & installment of steel cables & steel structures are carried out on the construction site, makes the overall manufacturing easy as well as fast.
• Safety & Reliability: Roofing Membrane structures are light in weight and their earthquake resistance is relatively better than other steel structures. These structures can tolerate of a huge amount of displacement in overall collapse of building.
• Weather Resistance: The weather resistance of membrane material is a comprehensive index, which prevents membrane structures to get affected by natural phenomena such as daylight, temperature variation, rain wash, dust erosion. This outlines its years of service, its aging resistance, self-cleaning ability and intensity attenuation.
• Optical Properties: The optical properties of membrane material refer to optical phenomenon like reflection, transmission, absorption and scattering. The effects of membrane material on light of various different wave bands satisfy the light requirements of various indoor activities.
• Fireproofing Performance: The membrane material itself is non-inflammable or flame retardant. Maintaining the stability of the framework of membrane structure in the case of fire/damage of membrane surface is one another noticeable issue connected to the fireproofing of membrane structure.
• Sufficient Durability: Stability & durability are basic mechanical properties that all building structures must satisfy. Ranging from a frigid arctic climate to hot & scorching weather, membranes such as PTFE fiberglass, ETFE film and PVC  proved to be an excellently durable and long lasting fabrics used in the manufacturing of membrane structures .

As a leading membrane structures manufacturers, Hindustan Alcox Limited  specializes in creating customized membrane structures with sophisticated designed practices. Our fabric architecture also includes tensile membrane structures, which require a prior understanding of shape and form, the behavior of the materials used and the forces acting on it.