ASIE’s Seminar for New Product “FRP Lightweight Concrete Rebar”
ASIE Board Members Chetan Vyas – Vice President, Chaitanya Gampa, Madhu Kilambi, Dinesh Shah – President, Gaju Patel – Secretary, Life member Raghu Dass presented the Certificate of Appreciation and ASIE Mug as a token of gratitude to the guest speaker Larry Goldberg with other board members Archana Sharma, and Sirish Madichetti who performed as Emcee.
By Dinesh Shah, MBA, PE
HOUSTON: American Society of Indian Engineers and Architects (ASIE) held a second technical seminar in August on 17th at Mayuri restaurant. In the jam-pack room with 60 plus engineers and architects, Larry Goldberg, PE, serves as Regional Sales Director for Neuvokas Corporation, bringing with him over 34 years of civil engineering experience.
He made the presentation of GATOBAR product called “FRP lightweight concrete rebar”. These rebar are made up of fiber reinforced polymer material. The fiber material such as Basalt, glass and carbon bonded with resin materials such as polyester, vinyl ester, polyurethane and high strength epoxy. This technology is proven for twice longer life than regular steel rebar. It has a longer sustainability being a rust proof.
It is very lightweight as it has advantage 4 to 7 times less in weight than regular steel bar, which reduces the construction time and labor and transportation cost. Two men can lift 20’x20’ grid of 76 pounds vs. 530 lbs. of regular steel rebar. The product is being used for major highway projects, high-rise buildings to the small household handyman projects. This material is easily available in Lowe’s store locally.
With this technical information, the one hour seminar was well received and many professionals participated in Q and A session. The licensed professional participants earned One PDH Hour Certificate for their Continuing Education Requirements.
In the beginning during social and dinner time, Sirish Madichetti, ASIE Board Member, Professional Engineer, and Project Manager with Michael Baker International performed as Emcee for the event. He made the welcome remarks, introduce the guest speaker, and concluded with vote of thanks.