March 13, 2012
James Cook University Cyclone Testing Centre which is Australia's pre-eminent cyclone testing centre, has just completed exhaustive wind and debris tests of the Force 10 engineered building system. The tests were just completed in late October, 2011.
Force 10 successfully tested to AS4043.2 "Methods of Testing Sheet Roof and Wall Cladding Method 3:Resistance to Winds Pressures for Cyclone Regions" which simulated wind load of winds of 11.72Kpa or up to approximately 480 km/hour which is a remarkable achievement. By way of comparison, Cyclone Yasi's maximum sustained winds speed was 205 km/hour as measured by the Bureau of Meterology.
The Force 10 building also resisted simulated debris impact testing, where sections of 100mm x 50mm hardwood of timber are fired at structures at up to 43.5 metres per second or 150 km/hour. This EXCEEDS the Queensland Government's Cyclone Shelter guidelines.
Adrian Murphy, CEO of Force 10 said "Force 10 has been exporting our product to the world for more than 20 years and offers safe and extremely robust housing for cyclone, tornado and earthquake zones. We are pleased that we can prove the safety of our product with this latest cutting edge research from an independent and highly reputable University."
Force 10 has built more than 3,500 buildings in 30 countries - mostly in cyclonic areas.