Many Years Of Development
Creating one-of-a-kind products does not happen with the push of a button. Our journey began in 2013 through extensive research and development with an aim to find a solution that would help to improve upon the life-cycle & environmental impact, along with aiding in the long-term resiliency, of concrete.
Building on our success with shrinkage crack control through this initial R&D, in early 2020, AtlantisFiber™ developed a new take on a highly ductile, sprayable fiber matrix designed for seismic retrofit and rehabilitation of various concrete infrastructure. At AtlantisFiber we're actively engaged in R&D across multiple industries to convert various waste streams to higher-value products. Stay Tuned.
Our Ongoing Research
AtlantisFiber is driven toward forward-thinking innovation. We are highly motivated to uncover additional applications to add value to long-term sustainability in concrete, in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner.
An Upcycled Methodology
Our approach — which incorporates a problematic waste stream from one industry and converts it into a value-added, performance-enhancing additive in another — creates a significant win/win for both industries & the planet by simultaneously improving respective environmental impacts.
Durability & Mechanical Resilience
Steel consistently ranks as the most resilient and cost-effective material... until now.
In material science, resilience is the ability of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically, and release that energy upon unloading. Proof resilience is defined as the maximum energy that can be absorbed up to the elastic limit, without creating a permanent distortion.
Our Two Technologies
The first was EnviroGuard-100, is an extracted blend of converted polymer fibers (CPF) sourced from repurposed tire fiber strands. It is a low-shrinkage, anti-crack admixture that demonstrated an equivalence to virgin counterparts, but with the significant benefit of cost performance and sustainability.
Materials Testing of EnviroGuard-100
Cementitious Crack Control For Concrete Repair
Our primary blend, EnviroGuard–100, a Polymeric Fiber Concrete Admixture, excels in repair & rehabilitation. Our RTF admixture largely mitigates the high concentration of cracking normally associated with high-cementitious mortar repair work.
Concrete Slab On Grade
Strain Evolution
Tension stresses cause cracking (see the appreciable improvement of RTF vs Plain).
Our second technology, NexGuard™ (our Engineered Hybridized Cementitious Composite or EHCC technology), offers a very easy and efficient placement with as little as ½” (1.27 centimetres) of NexGuard™ placed through normal shotcrete techniques. SeismicFiber™ƒ is able to withstand 9.1+ seismic events.
NexGuard™ (also known as EHCC)
A cost effective and highly sustainable seismic retrofit admixture
Nexguard™ is a sprayable, blended and engineered composite that incorporates Repurposed Tire Fiber (RTF). EHCC allows for a massive increase in ductility to the substrate of which it is applied which results in large levels of energy dissipation when a seismic event occurs.
This material possesses elastoplastic, strain-hardening characteristics directly comparable to steel and eliminates the brittle and inflexible nature of conventional cement-based repair systems.
Materials Testing of NexGuard™
Displacement Curves
On the chart, "Mix 0" is plain cement with no fiber reinforcement. You can see that Mix 0 exhibits reasonably high early strength but then drastically drops to zero when significant loads are applied.
These curves demonstrate the broad range of applications — and differentiated products— available depending on performance needs from seismic retrofit on the high side to thin and thick repair work on the low side. In any scenario, our fiber system offers significantly higher ductility and flexibility than standard cementitious composites.
Structural Integrity Demonstration
Extremely High Ductility Under a 9.1 Magnitude Seismic Event
This shows the Building upon the incredible R&D results achieved by Dr. Nemy Banthia and his team the SIERA Group, Atlantis Fiber teamed up with Dr. Banthia to develop a hybridized fiber system that would further improve upon the cost and sustainability of SIERA's novel innovation.
This three-axis, seismic shake table video demonstrates the amazing ductility of SIERA's application. Currently, materials testing of Atlantis Fibers' hybridized substitute (NexGuard™) shows strong potential for an equivalent level of performance when compared to EDCC.
The Green Built Environment & Carbon Neutrality
The built environment touches all aspects of our lives, encompassing the buildings we live in, the distribution systems that provide us with water and electricity, and the roads, bridges, and transportation systems we use to get from place to place. Green & sustainable building creates structures and uses processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life cycle.
In AtlantisFiber's environment, the initial comparison between the recycled and virgin products indicates a strong potential for impact reduction for the recycled product. AtlantisFiber's core vision is to create highly durable, resilient and carbon-neutral building materials. We incorporate significant levels of up-cycled material and industrial by-products from several industries where sustainable solutions for these waste streams do not currently exist. With these materials, we repair old and decaying infrastructure and buildings, thereby greatly reducing the carbon inputs that would otherwise result in the demolition and complete rebuild of these key assets.U.S. Infrastructure Challenges Present a Retrofit Boom Market with a $2.5 Trillion Infrastructure Deficit. Examples are:
- The General Services Administration (GSA) - Presenting the largest inventory of buildings in need of major repair or retrofit in North America
- FEMA – Massive call for seismic upgrades to buildings across the U.S. — most notably within schools and hospitals
- U.S. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – AtlantisFiber offers solutions to infrastructure improvements across the spectrum from roads, to bridge decks and a variety of public and civil works
Building as a Solution
Unparalleled Carbon Sequestration
Atlantis envisions a very unique spin on conventional carbon sequestration technologies that infuse captured CO2 into freshly mixed concrete. Though this has proven to be an effective method for reducing overall carbon with, in some cases a 30% reduction in overall emissions, this process still requires that new concrete be generated.
AtlantisFiber sets ourselves apart by using a fraction of the materials that would otherwise be necessary for a complete demo and rebuild of a building/structure thereby effectively storing the original carbon for a further 30-50 years. Additionally, we are able to significantly reduce landfill waste that would be the result of a demolished structure creating a double win in the process.
Path "B" Expanded
Our Approach To A Circular Economy
This shows how the carbon-neutral NexGuard™ applied to old buildings/infrastructure results in multiple benefits such as carbon capture & cost savings, waste mitigation, and carbon offsets.
PET vs RTF Energy Comparison
Third party validation from Athena Sustainable Materials Institute, demonstrates a massive energy savings and total Global Warming Potential reduction benefit by the incorporation of our RTF as compared to its conventional petroleum-based fiber counterpart.
Baseline Scenario
Compare Cradle-to-Gate Production
Virgin Polyester (PET) fiber vs. a Recycled Tire Fiber (RTF) product modelled based on a North American profile for PET granules and an extrusion process.
Our Engineered Technology
AtlantisFiber has developed proprietary infrastructure admixtures of a repurposed & extracted blend of cleaned and refined fibers sourced from recycled vehicle tires throughout the world. From these raw inputs, we produce a Repurposed Tire Fiber (RTF) blend that offers many benefits when used in concrete repair/retrofit and new construction. Our process is exceptionally energy efficient, keeping in alignment with AtlantisFiber’s sustainability initiatives.
Our Synthetic Micro-Fiber admixtures, EnviroGuard–100™ and NexGuard™ have been engineered to be used in all climates, in all types of concrete, and for all types of uses, including ■ Parking lots ■ Roadways ■ Commercial Slabs-On-Ground ■ Precast Products ■ Pools and Pool Decks ■ Sewerage & Stormwater Culverts ■ Virgin Shotcrete & Shotcrete Retrofitting ■ Tunnels & Bridges ■ Blast & Impact Resistant Structures ■ 3-D printing ■ ... and more.
Our primary blend, Enviroguard–100, a Polymeric Fiber Concrete Admixture blend excels at crack control.
It is an extracted blend of converted polymer fibers (CPF) sourced from repurposed tire fiber strands. Our Synthetic Micro-Fiber blend has been specifically developed to be used globally for a multitude of uses.
This is not your typical concrete admixture; in fact, it is a structural support admixture.
As an engineered blend of proprietary ingredients, testing and practical application research show unmatched URM (unreinforced masonry) flexibility that can withstand sustained 9.0 seismic events.
AtlantisFiber™ is an innovator of repurposed-fiber applications and our polymeric fiber concrete admixture is less expensive overall compared to hand-tied rebar, while still increasing the tensile strength many times. This translates into fewer project costs, less build impact, and longer overall sustainability.
Why Atlantis?
With AtlantisFiber, it's no longer necessary to have to choose between sustainability and performance.
