By Gary Watson | June 1, 2016 Estimated reading time 9 minutes, 29 seconds.
Sprung completed an extensive overhead heating and HVAC system for the Air Force Museum of Alberta, located in Calgary. Gary Watson Photo
In 1887, a family-owned company in Calgary made its first custom canvas products. These products were tents, chuck wagon covers and mattresses that were sold to people moving to Western Canada when Calgary was being settled.
Starting with tough canvas products, the company has become an innovative leader in the fabric-building industry. Nearly 13 decades later, the company is still designing and selling fabric structures. Instead of canvas they have developed unique synthetic products to create buildings with a clear span of 200 feet (60.9 metres), far larger than their forefathers would have dreamed possible.
Sprung Instant Shelters is still a family-owned business and has sold over 12,000 structures for use in over 100 countries. It provides buildings of every size and shape either temporary or permanent, for every market sector including industrial, commercial, hospitality, community, sports, government and transportation uses.
Some of the company’s unique buildings include a shelter for the workers over Ground Zero in New York City, United States Military MRAP (Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected) vehicle maintenance buildings in Iraq, a space shuttle shelter at Kennedy Space Center, casinos, elephant enclosures at the Edmonton Zoo and disaster relief buildings. Their products are in use in a wide variety of structures in all sectors of industry and in all climatic regions.
The company designed and constructed two buildings, replicating the Cold War-era North Atlantic Treaty Organization hardened aircraft shelters for the Air Force Museum of Alberta. Gary Watson Photo
Emergency shelters have been quickly supplied and assembled after major natural disasters as far away as Haiti and as close as few kilometres from company headquarters, north of High River, Alta., which was hit by major flooding in 2013. Within a few weeks of the flood waters dissipating, Sprung had provided six structures to the town, the largest a 30-foot by 300-foot retail complex.
The key to the success of the Sprung Instant Shelters is based on the small number of different components required to manufacture and erect one of the buildings. The external shell is a tensioned membrane material that is extremely durable and impervious to heat or cold.
The panels are all 4.5 metres in width and can be any length. They are supported by extruded aluminum beams that can be assembled to create a clear span of 61 metres with a roof height of 15 metres. The panels are attached to the aluminum beams by a seamed loop on all edges holding a nylon rope. This rope is installed in the aluminum extrusions and tensioned in all directions. The curved shape of the roof has been optimized to shed snow and withstand extreme winds of over 120 miles per hour (193 kilometres per hour), such as in an area of New Orleans
The key feature is the performance architectural membrane Sprung has developed. It consists of five layers of material, each with their own characteristic:
- External layer: Dupont Tedlar Architectural Coloured Film is a UV-blocking, weather resistant and maintenance-free cover;
- White PVC layer: fire-retardant, weather, fungus and mildew resistant;
- Centre layer: polyester base fabric, high tensile and tear strength, puncture resistant, low -wicking yarns;
- Blackout opaque layer: blocks sunlight, eliminating heat buildup and enhancing climate control;
- White interior PVC layer: adds reflectivity and protects base fabric, fungus and mildew resistant.
Added together this material provides a clean exterior look with a bright interior wall that enhances lighting. The material is very tough overall yet still lightweight.
The structural aluminum beams provide a lightweight frame allowing large open spans with a very sleek and contemporary look, be it a casino, church, museum or hangar. Sprung has also designed a variety of doors and windows that can be easily incorporated into the building. Simple man-doors to a large articulating one allows for a wide variety of openings. Sprung structures can be any width from 30 feet (10 metres) to 160 feet (48 metres) and any length. In some cases it is difficult to realize you are in a fabric building.
Sprung has a large inventory of building components with one million square feet at its headquarter facility and another one million in Salt Lake City, their main location in the United States. The large majority of structural parts are common and designing a structure is very easy with all components readily available.
Little or no ground preparation is needed, with no foundation required on buildings up to 160 feet wide. A Sprung team can assemble a non-insulated structure at a rate of 2,000 square feet (185 square metres) per day and an insulated one at 1,000 square feet (93 square metres) per day. Due to the modular design, buildings can be easily expanded, reconfigured or disassembled and moved.
Company headquarters features an in-house restaurant providing breakfast and lunch, a gymnasium and fitness centre, plus skills development and training classrooms. Sprung Photo
The aviation hangar business is varied and includes large helicopter and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) facilities in the Middle East; a maintenance hangar for corporate jets in Cambridge, U.K.; and helicopter hangars in Azerbaijan, Nigeria, the United States and various military facilities world-wide.
Close to corporate headquarters, Sprung designed and constructed two buildings, replicating the Cold War era North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) hardened aircraft shelters for the Air Force Museum of Alberta, located in Calgary.
Sprung has sales staff in Canada, Ireland, Bahrain and the United States with Aldersyde, Alta., as the corporate headquarters and Canadian manufacturing location. The workforce is located at three manufacturing locations at Calgary, Salt Lake City and Bahrain.
The headquarters building features an in-house restaurant providing breakfast and lunch, a gymnasium and fitness centre, plus skills development and training classrooms.
Sprung is very cognizant of its social, environmental and economic roles in society and has been involved in many disasters worldwide, donating through groups such as the AmeriCares foundation, MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders), Homes of Hope, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and other relief organizations.
The recent wildfire in Fort McMurray is just the latest disaster to see Sprung out front in providing help.
“We are donating a 5,000-square-foot, warehouse-type building to help the victims,” said president Phil Sprung. “It may be used to store donated goods so they will be accessible to the residents when they return. We are waiting for the provincial government to decide where they want to locate the structure. Then we will deliver and install it at that time.”
The Sprung buildings have an indefinite lifespan for the aluminum structure and a minimum lifetime of 30 years for the outer membrane. By replacing the exterior membrane, the lifespan can be continuously renewed. The membrane itself is very energy efficient and by adding a 9.5-inch-thick R30 fibreglass blanket between the two layers of fabric, the air-tight wall structure will exceed many conventional rigid buildings, increasing the efficiency of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Adding to the appeal of the building is the capability of dismantling and moving it in a relatively short period of time, an impossible task for brick and mortar construction.
Not content to stay with current products, Sprung is continuously developing new ones to continue as one of Canada’s oldest family businesses.
