AltusGroup, a partnership of 20 innovation-focused North American precasters – has entered into an exclusive technology and manufacturing agreement with ARCIS Corporation, Portland, Ore., to license the company’s patented ultra-thin prestressed panel and product technology.
Boasting depths as thin as 0.625 inches (16mm) to 1.5 inches (37.5mm), ARCIS ultra-thin precast panels (arcispanel.com) have been successfully used across the Pacific Northwest as cladding and exterior fascia panels, rainscreens and ventilated drainage products, interior décor, marine decking, planking, and tactile ADA detectable warning panels. Developed by Brian Blount, founder and president of ARCIS Corporation, the thin panel technology uses non-corrosive stainless steel prestressing to impart exceptional strength, crack control and durability while allowing concrete cover (and therefore panel weight) to be minimized.
The agreement with AltusGroup will dramatically expand the availability of the ARCIS product throughout North America. Initially, five of AltusGroup’s members have elected to take sublicenses with more expected in the coming months.
“This agreement is more evidence of our desire to be the driving force for bringing precast innovation to North America,” said John Carson, executive director of AltusGroup. “This is a huge opportunity for us to bring the ARCIS technology to the architectural building community and precast segment. We have been studying the movement of the architectural market with respect to changing regional building codes and material specifications and believe the ARCIS technology gives us another proven, economical platform to meet the market’s diverse enclosure needs.”
The agreement represents AltusGroup’s first non carbon-fiber based product technology platform since the introduction of the group’s flagship CarbonCast line, a next generation precast technology that uses C-GRID® carbon fiber composite grid for shear and face reinforcement in high performance insulated wall panels, architectural cladding, double tees and piles. The group’s novel “co-opetition” model – where members cooperate to speed the development and introduction of products then compete with each another for projects – provides an ideal structure to quickly broaden the market availability of ARCIS.
“Our agreement with AltusGroup will allow ARCIS to realize its full market potential as a differentiated precast technology,” said Blount. “AltusGroup and its members have proven capacity and leadership to introduce new technology on a national basis as they have done with CarbonCast. Rather than being only a regionally accepted product technology, ARCIS technology will be able to achieve significant scale over the next five years as the construction market continues to recover.
About AltusGroup
The first-ever national partnership of precast companies, AltusGroup was founded in 2003 to develop, manufacture and market precast innovations such as the award-winning CarbonCast® line of products featuring C-GRID carbon fiber grid reinforcing. With more than two dozen structural and architectural locations in the United States, the 20 North American and two international AltusGroup companies have an unparalleled network of manufacturing plants, technical staff and sales personnel to ensure architects, engineers and contractors get the help they need—and the quality and performance they expect—when they select CarbonCast products. For more information, visit altusprecast.com or call 866-GO-ALTUS.
