Engineered Welded Wire Reinforcement: Then and now.
Explore the history of EWWR.
The story of Engineered Welded Wire Reinforcement, commonly referred to as “EWWR” or in the construction world as “Welded Bar Mats”, begins post-WWII Europe. Much of the European continent, particularly the infrastructure and the industrial sectors, was destroyed and in ruins. Major roadways, bridges, railways and manufacturing facilities, prime military targets, were in need of significant repair or total reconstruction. Added to this impossible situation was the loss of human life, estimated to be 50 million men, women and children. The enormity of the casualties, particularly in ages 18 to 60, made up a significant portion of what would have been the workforce necessary to rebuild Europe.
Necessity being the mother of invention, the Europeans needed to innovate and develop construction methods and materials that could accelerate reconstruction with an extremely limited workforce, without compromising quality and safety. One such innovation was Engineered Welded Wire Reinforcement (EWWR). EWWR are sheets of reinforcement pre-welded into a grid. It was developed as an alternative to tying loose rebar. It is mass-produced in a factory, shipped to job sites in various shapes and sizes, and can be installed in a fraction of the time required to set and tie individual reinforcement bars, and can be placed with unskilled labor.
The U.S. Market
Historically and still today, structural concrete construction predominately uses loose reinforcement bars of various sizes, wire-tied by hand into a grid as the primary reinforcement for concrete construction in applications such as beams, slabs, walls, and foundations. This type of reinforcement is typically installed by iron workers who are skilled at placing and tying rebar.
The introduction of today’s EWWR into the U.S. market occurred in the early 1990’s with the first state-of-the-art modern manufacturing facility, Structural Reinforcement Products (SRP), commencing operations in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. SRP was a subsidiary of Schlatter A.G., a Swiss company that manufactures resistance welders. Schlatter made the initial investment into the U.S. market to produce EWWR. Schlatter’s primary goal was to create a market for EWWR welders by setting up a plant that would introduce EWWR and its cost and time saving benefits to the U.S. concrete construction industry.
Why education fueled expansion.
Introducing a new product into a mature industry like concrete construction, with a time-tested product already in use, “rebar” was very much an uphill battle. Every engineering school in the country, design firm, concrete construction company, and iron worker taught, designed, built, or installed rebar on their concrete projects. SRP was tasked with breaking into this industry using a “Marketing Warfare” style approach. The U.S. rebar industry was huge by comparison to SRP’s single EWWR facility and would not view it as a market threat. The massive investments in rebar production and fabrication would not allow rebar competitors to embrace a better mouse trap.
So, SRP’s technical sales staff, on a project by project and contractor by contractor basis, demonstrated to design engineers that EWWR did not compromise their concrete design but rather enhanced quality control through the use of prefabrication. We educated concrete contractors on the product benefits which included labor and cost savings, self-performing installation, and compression of their construction schedule. SRP’s early success, coupled with Schlatter’s desire to sell more EWWR welders, was the catalyst for expansion of the EWWR industry. Producers of standard welded wire mesh began making investments in EWWR production lines. Currently, there are more than 30 EWWR production lines throughout the U.S.
Meet the pioneers, your SRS team of professionals.
At the epicenter of the EWWR movement were a few young, ambitious sales personnel, project managers, design engineers, and detailers who saw the growth potential of this budding industry. Members of that elite group included John Ortiz, Tom Plowright, Ken Dixon, Sue Driscoll and Paula Leitner - all of whom integral to the industry’s early success. Today, these professionals are building on past achievements and leveraging their strengths here at SRS. As a team, we aim to further advance the use of EWWR and facilitate its continued penetration into America's concrete reinforcement market.