AMC Foam Technologies Tour – March 20th Chamber Luncheon

Home > AMC Foam Technologies Tour – March 20th Chamber Luncheon

AMC Foam Technologies Tour – March 20th Chamber Luncheon

Home > AMC Foam Technologies Tour – March 20th Chamber Luncheon

The March Chamber luncheon was held on March 20th at AMC Foam Technologies. A group of 40 were given a tour of this state of the art manufacturing facility along with an excellent presentation by Conrad Hoeppner, Vice President of Sales. The Gates on Roblin catered a delicious lunch.

AMC Foam Technologies is a family run business established in 1995 by the late Tom Smerchanski. In 2013 AMC relocated from Inkster Park into its new facilities in Headingley.

Justin Smerchanski together with a strong management team have successfully developed a company where its staff love to come to work. AMC attributes its success to the dedication of its employees and their commitment to communication.

AMC Foam is one of the largest employers in the Rural Municipality of Headingley with 52 employees and growing.

Their 114,000 square foot building includes a large manufacturing facility, warehouse, and a second floor office. Expanded polystyrene insulation products manufactured at the facility are created by injecting steam into polystyrene resin pellets. The manufacture of polystyrene insulation is non-polluting and the “smoke” seen billowing from the plant is actually clouds of steam. AMC uses state of the art manufacturing equipment and is proud that it uses green manufacturing process with the recycling of water, regrinding of scrap material with no polystyrene being hauled to the landfill. Any product or materials that cannot be reground are melted and shipped to manufacture alternative products like picture frames AMC Foam Technologies products are sold in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and North west Ontario. The company also sells its products through distributors in the Midwest states. AMC products are available in lumberyards, concrete supply and retail stores across Canada and several states in the USA.

AMC’s primary products include Logix ICF (insulated concrete forms) and rigid insulation sheet goods. The ICFs are used to build foundations, complete homes, multi storey residences, and other commercial structures. The rigid sheet goods (HALO) are used on the outside/inside/below grade for both residential and commercial building. These products can be seen throughout Headingley and can be identified as Logix, Halo, and Heat Sheet. AMC Foam is working with contractors with the objective to build Net Zero homes by 2030. This is a new initiative by the Canadian government where all buildings will be required to be Net Zero by 2030. This means that a building must create as much energy as it consumes, having a net zero balance. The first concern towards reaching this target is a thermally efficient building envelope. This is not only advantageous for reducing energy consumption, but studies have shown that employee productivity increases with a good work environment and thermal comfort was the number one issue.

AMC Foam has constructed several buildings in Manitoba using the Logix insulated concrete forms. As an example, the Best Western Hotel in Headingley is a concrete ICF building and the guest rooms are very quiet. Although the cost of using a concrete envelope is marginally higher than a stick frame building, it is thermally more efficient. When shown two photos using infrared sensors it was startling to see the difference between the traditional wood frame and the concrete ICF building. It was readily apparent how the concrete ICF building was thermally superior. Another benefit is that it costs about half as much to heat and cool this type of building.

In a recent thermal study, the R-factor of a concrete ICF building was shown to be superior to that of the traditional stick frame construction. With one side of the wall at -35°C and the other at room temperature, there was no discernible heat loss for 48 hours. Over the course of a year, with our Manitoba extreme climate conditions, one can expect an ICF home to perform at an average of R40-45, which is 2.5 times better than the current building code. On behalf of all the members and guests who attended the tour and presentation, the Chamber of Commerce would like to thank Justin Smerchanski, Dinu Paraschiv, Conrad Hoeppner and their team for the informative tour and excellent presentation.