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 HUMAN > Construction:
Last updated: 2007
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## India's 'Grancrete' is Stronger than Concrete, Saturday, June 24 http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8554
An Indian-American researcher has helped develop a tough new ceramic material that is almost twice as strong as concrete and may be the key to providing high-quality, low-cost housing throughout the developing world.
Arun Wagh spent a decade at the Argonne National Laboratory here working on a ceramic material that offered the toughness of concrete. He finally developed a substance called 'grancrete', which can be used to quickly build houses at minimal expense.
"I was asked to create a material that could safely encase nuclear waste so that the waste did not get into ground water," said Wagh. The substance Wagh developed combined magnesium oxide and potassium phosphate with water and ashes.
The promising new technology may lead to affordable housing for the world's poorest. Houses can be built by spraying grancrete on to a simple frame of Styrofoam and it hardens quickly and will not crack easily.
Experiments have proved that grancrete is stronger than concrete, is fire resistant and can withstand both tropical and sub-freezing temperatures, making it ideal for a broad range of geographic locations. It insulates so well that it keeps dwellings in arid regions cool and those in frigid regions warm.
"Grancrete is 50 percent sand or sandy soil, 25 percent ash and 25 percent binding material," Wagh said.
"Binding material is composed of magnesium oxide and potassium phosphate, the latter of which is a biodegradable element in fertilizer. So even if grancrete were to decompose, it would revitalize the soil," said the scientist.
"For every tonne of conventional concrete, you get a tonne of greenhouse gases. With one tonne of grancrete, you get one-tenth of the greenhouse gases."
According to an estimate by Casa Grande, the company that is collaborating with Argonne in making grancrete, the cost of building a grancrete home is about $6,000.
"Casa Grande made this estimate for building a house in Venezuela. In India, it would be much cheaper," said Wagh, whose goal is to see grancrete used throughout India, and the world, to produce housing for the poor.
In fact, a test house using grancrete is being built in India. Wagh is familiar with the housing the poor live in. He grew up in a village in Karnataka where, even to this day, the homes have walls and ceilings made from knitted mats of palm leaves and the floors are made up of dried cow dung.
Grancrete is so versatile that Wagh even paints using it. "It becomes like a paste and you can add any colour to it... It is a little more difficult to use than oil paint.
"Every day I come to the office, I get a call from people telling me it can be used for something else. You can do anything with it. The only thing you cannot do is eat it," Wagh said.
Argonne and Casa Grande have extensively field-tested grancrete for structural properties, post application behaviour and production costs. Their next step will be to test it for both earthquake and hurricane resistance, after which they will make the product available worldwide.
According to Jim Paul, president of Casa Grande, workers need only two days of training to learn how to calibrate the machinery.
Casa Grande typically assembles a team of five people who can start in the morning and create a home that residents can move into that evening. Grancrete cures in 15 minutes, while conventional concrete can take hours, or even days, to dry.
Wagh completed his Masters in Mumbai and got a doctorate from the State University in New York. He returned to India, taught in Goa, and then spent 12 years in Jamaica.
In Jamaica, Wagh changed tracks from physics to materials science. Returning to the US, he joined Argonne as a materials scientist.
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## About Green Sandwich Panels, Unsurpassed Engineering http://www.greensandwichtech.com/company/panels.php
Structures built using insulated concrete are among the fastest growing segment of the building industry. This growth has been driven by the industry's desire to build more efficiency into the construction process. It is also the result of an increased demand for homes with better energy and sound insulation. Green Sandwich has taken the SCIPs panels of the past and has re-engineered them from the inside out to create a revolutionary new panel. Our patented panels are different in three ways:
- 1. Our panels are engineered, not simply manufactured. This results in significantly higher panel durability and strength. Having an engineered panel also allows our company to provide panels in an almost infinite number of sizes and configurations, including very large spans. Our panels are a complete building system, and can be used for floors, roofs, walls, countertops, and pools.
- 2. Green Sandwich Panels are by far the easiest panels to build with. Ours is the panel with inherent utility chases, allowing builders to easily install utilities (Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc.) internally. We also train and certify our installers, and offer ongoing technical support.
- 3. Green Sandwich Panels are the most environmentally friendly structural building system in the country. More Info >>
The GST Building System Advantage
# STRENGTH : Green Sandwich Panels have a wind load capacity of 200 mph+, thus they will easily withstand hurricanes and even F-3 tornadoes. They are also designed to meet the criteria to withstand 8.0+ earthquakes. Because our panels are reinforced and encapsulated by a layer of concrete on both sides, they will resist pests, mold and vermin, and have the highest fire rating in the industry, and are water resistant.
Exterior walls built with Green Sandwich Panels are structural entities themselves, allowing designers to easily place cantilever windows, load-bearing floor systems and outer-wall openings with total flexibility. Interior walls built with Green Sandwich Panels help bear loads throughout your structure, allowing greater distances to be spanned without interim supports.
# SPEED : Green Sandwich buildings can be built in approximately half the time versus conventional construction. This allows your projects to go from blueprint design to finished structure in half the time and with much less risk.
# FLEXIBILITY : With an unlimited number of finishes and design configurations, the Green Sandwich Building System can be used for both residential, commercial and industrial applications. The panels can be used for floors, interior and exterior walls, roofs, ceilings, pools, fences and site and privacy walls.
# SUPERIOR SOUND INSULATION : Green Sandwich Panels transfer about 66% less noise than wood-frame or steel-framed walls. This makes our panels an excellent choice for urban housing, hospitals, theaters, schools, or any place where sound quality is an issue.
# SUPERIOR TEMPERATURE INSULATION : Green Sandwich Panels provide an insulated concrete structure for both hot and cold regions, delivering an R-40 performance. Our insulation performance is nearly four times that of conventional construction. A typical Green Sandwich homeowner can save up to 60% on energy costs.
# ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLINESS : Green Sandwich Panels contain approximately 60% recycled/reclaimed materials by volume, 40% by weight. All waste is 100% recyclable, the greenest structural building product available in the United States, and perhaps, the world. The Green Sandwich Building System can also incorporate 100% locally-harvested bio-mass (Including orchard trimmings, road-side weed growth, straw and stalk mowings) to replace the EPS foam core. More Info >>
# AFFORDABILITY : The Green Sandwich Building System competes very favorably when compared to conventional construction methods, plus GST panels offer 40-60% energy savings over the life of the building. More Info>> http://www.greensandwichtech.com/company/savings.php
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## ZeroNet Envelope System, PowerHouse Home: Featured Products http://www.powerhousetv.com/stellent2/groups/public/documents/pub/phtv_yh_ph_prod_002613.hcsp
The Alliant Energy PowerHouse Home was built using a revolutionary new building system developed by Des Moines, Iowa-based ZeroNet, LLC http://www.zeronetllc.com/ .
The Alliant Energy PowerHouse Home will be the first building to be constructed with the patent-pending Zero Net technology outside the realm of testing and development.
How it works: Unlike conventional construction, the PowerHouse Home won’t have 2x4 or 2x6 dimensional lumber inside the walls.
The framing is composed of expanded polystyrene foam panels with an embedded compressed wood frame.
Fiberglass-reinforced concrete is applied to the manufactured panels, creating a strong, super-efficient wall structure.
After an external coating is applied, the panels form a single “envelope” that serves as the exterior walls of the home.
This patent-pending technology, especially the fiberglass-reinforced concrete, holds warm air indoors during the winter and keeps it out of the home during the summer.
For more great views of the home’s construction, be sure to check our photo gallery http://www.powerhousetv.com/stellent2/groups/public/documents/pub/phtv_yh_ph_gall_index.hcsp .
How it’s different
Two other forms of EPS wall systems are being used in construction today:
- Structural insulated panels, or SIPs, sandwich the EPS foam between oriented strand board.
- “Shotcrete” uses EPS reinforced with rebar and sprayed with conventional concrete.
Instead of these two methods, Zero Net’s design uses fiberglass-reinforced concrete to provide energy efficiency, strength and durability.
The benefits
When combined with other energy-efficient building products and appliances, the ZeroNet envelope system is expected to cut energy costs at the PowerHouse Home by up to 60 percent.
Along with increased energy efficiency, the ZeroNet design also increases the buildings resistance to termites, allows for any type of finish texture on interior and exterior walls and allows for quick assembly on the work site.
The EPS panels can be cut to any size or shape, allowing for design that’s not possible with many other forms of construction.
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## Ashland man's invention claims national prize, May 28, 2006, By John Darling, for the Mail Tribune http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/0528/local/stories/inventor.htm
With a prestigious $25,000 "Modern Marvels" grand prize from the History Channel and the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Ashland "green" inventor David Ward and his Strawjet seem poised to take a bite out of the world's building materials market. "The recognition and validation that it gives us from the scientific community is huge and we hope and expect it will bring investors," said Ward's co-inventor and business partner, Leo Palombo of Ashland.
It also might bring a buy-out offer for the fledgling company — which "we might go for under certain conditions," he added.
Developed mainly by Ward in his backyard shop and relocated to big shops in Talent last year, Strawjet Inc. produces a machine that gleans waste straw from fields, weaves it into cables, then, using a clay-cement material, binds the cables into building materials, such as blocks and beams.
Ward's prize, the 2006 Modern Marvel of the Year comes from the History Channel, which featured the winners as part of its "Great Inventions Week" on Saturday, and from Invent Now, a subsidiary of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation.
Ward says he began his trek as a "green" inventor after getting seriously ill from contact with building materials in his job as a construction supervisor. Finding that no modern green materials compared in strength to traditional ones, Ward decided to invent them.
His central vision of using farm fiber waste came to him while driving a combine on a farm — and after 10 years of research, and using many hand-made parts, he built the first prototype. Seeing deforestation in Latin America further motivated him to find a wood alternative. Ward was one of only four out of 380 applicants to win the Environmental Protection Agency's Small Business Innovation Research grant, allowing him to build a full-scale model capable of making wall sections.
It was successfully field-tested at the Oregon State University Experiment Station here — and Ward and his board of trustees set up nonprofit ASET — Ashland School of Environmental Technology — allowing Ward to get grant money and use the project to mentor area students, including those from Wilderness Charter School at Ashland High School.
Ward, 54, was traveling after the award ceremony and could not be reached for comment for this story. The invention of the Strawjet has special significance, Palombo said, because it's a major departure from existing technology, because it creates strong building materials from abundant waste and because China and other emerging nations, needing to build millions of new homes, are looking for alternatives to scarce and expensive steel and timber.
A hand-fed version of the Strawjet is likely to be in demand in disaster-prone regions, such as quake-stricken Afghanistan or the hurricane-thrashed Gulf Coast, Palombo said, adding, "There's a staggering amount of potential in China and the Mideast, where there's certainly not enough lumber, concrete or steel."
The corporation has focused on straw because it's abundant, but is already exploring stronger agricultural fibers, such as hemp and "virtually indestructible" palm fronds, either substance capable of supporting a 10-story building, Palombo said. The panel of judges, which included Steve Wozniak, co-inventor of the personal computer, chose Ward from 4,300 entries examined over the last eight months. Main criterion was "their potential to make a dramatic global impact and be true modern marvels," according to a statement on the History Channel's Web site.
"The big ideas behind these inventions are mind boggling," said Wozniak, on the cable TV network's Web site. "The Strawjet has the potential to revolutionize how we build in the less developed regions of the world by using one of our few remaining and endless resources: straw."
Invent Now President Jeffrey Dollinger said Ward's invention is "an extraordinary advancement in the global construction industry, and it is one that has the potential to end up in our Hall of Fame one day." Inventions of the 25 finalists toured major cities over the last three months. Inventors were hosted at the award banquet and an invention seminar by the History Channel, National Inventors Hall of Fame and Time Magazine. Inventions have been on display at Grand Central Terminal and will be viewable through September at the Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio.
John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.
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## FEATURE: Life in the straw, 01.08.2006, by KATHY WEBB http://www.hbtoday.co.nz
As the prices of electricity and petrol soar, people are beginning to work out how to save energy and money in their daily lives.
This first of a three-part series looks at a super-cosy method of house-building. The house of straw that the big bad wolf huffed and puffed and blew down to get at his pork dinner was a metaphor for laziness. And the wee piggy who built it suffered an inevitable fate for his slackness and lack of foresight. The story of The Three Little Pigs has been an inter-generational favourite, complete with the terror of a cunning, predatory wolf intent on a violent home invasion, murder and a meal of his victim.
Like any other fairy story, it carries a Trojan moral message, emphasising, among other things, the desirability of substance, the necessity to think, plan and do things properly and to build houses of bricks rather than straw. There is a more than a little irony in The Three Little Pigs, because in reality straw has always been a good building material. It's been used on its own and in combination with other materials since mankind began building shelter, and the big bad wolf would never have been able to kick down, let alone blow over, a properly-built straw house.
In the US, particularly in the vast tracts of Nebraska, building with straw bales became very popular after the invention of baling machines in the 1850s, and some of the bale buildings created in the early 1900s are still in use. Straw-bale construction is relatively new to New Zealand, but is rapidly gaining in popularity.
"It's not loony fringe any more, it's becoming relatively mainstream," says Ross Berry. He and partner Sarah Lambert are building a 250 sq m straw-bale house on a 6ha block at Raukawa. Ross first came across straw-bale houses around Santa Fe in the US, and liked the adobe style of many. A couple of years ago he did a summer course at the polytech in Gisborne, and learned the rudiments of straw-bale construction, from stacking to mixing and applying the stucco.
Straw-bale houses can be timber-framed with straw infill, or have load-bearing straw walls. Council building officers still occasionally suffer nervous twitches when confronted with plans for the latter, says Ross, but are generally more comfortable with the concept of straw-bale houses than they used to be. The walls of Ross and Sarah's house are timber with straw infill. The straw is trimmed then covered in wrap or netting, given three layers of stucco, then a coat of breathable paint. The eaves are wide, and there is careful attention to flashing. The idea is to protect the walls from rain, but it's not the end of the world if an area of straw does get damp, says Ross. "You smack away the stucco, pull out the straw, replace it, and patch it up." Keen conservationists, Ross and Sarah liked the insulation qualities and versatility of straw, and the opportunity to be involved in the construction of their house with builder Peter Olsen. They've used 500 bales for their home. "The whole thing is flexible in the amount of detail you want. If you want a doorway, you attack the bales with a chainsaw. Or if you want a nook, just make one. You can carve a bookcase into an interior wall. Someone arty and crafty could have a field day," says Ross. The bales framing their windows have been shaped into curves away from the windows to let in more light, even though the house has extensive areas of glass along its north-facing front and spectacular views. Part of the appeal of using straw is being able to make spontaneous design decisions as the house is being built, and not necessarily having to worry about meticulous finish, the couple say. "We know a girl in Gisborne who built one (a straw-bale house). There's not a straight wall in the house, but it doesn't matter," Ross says. Windows can be on the outside or the inside of the half-metre-thick walls. "You can create window seats. A lot of the stuff we're making up as we go." Ross, an energy consultant and member of the New Zealand Photovoltaic Association, and Sarah, a sales analyst for Contact Energy, carefully considered the energy options for their house. "People are becoming a lot more aware of increasing energy costs," says Sarah. They could have opted not to take electricity from the national grid, but there are power lines nearby so they decided to hook up in addition to installing solar generation, which will allow them to create and use their own electricity, and send it back into the grid when their batteries are fully charged. More people are opting to go off-grid, and it's possible to live comfortably that way, although not necessarily a lot cheaper, says Ross. "You review what your electrical requirements are, and design a system to suit that. You need to be frugal with electricity - cook with gas and use gas or solar for hot water. You do everything you can to lessen your electricity load."
It can cost about $30,000 to set up such a system, and the return on investment is a lot slower than for a simple solar-water heating system, which can pay for itself within a few years. Hot water accounts for about 40 percent of the average household power bill, and a solar system can normally replace about 80 percent of that. Ross and Sarah cannot understand why the national building code does not include a requirement for every new house to have solar water heating. "It would be a bold move, but there doesn't seem to be a political will to introduce it," says Ross. If it had been done three years ago, New Zealand would not now be facing an electricity crisis, he says. Apart from solar-heated water for everyday use, Ross and Sarah will pipe it through the concrete floor to help heat their home. Ross believes another good energy-conservation move would be for double glazing to be compulsory in the South Island. He and Sarah opted for it, despite the fact it cost 30 percent more than ordinary windows. They hope to be in their house later this month, and do a lot of the finishing work themselves. Big demand Evan Crawford is passionate about straw-bale houses. No stranger to unconventional housing - he's exported log houses to Japan - his Opotiki-based companies Straw Built Homes Ltd and Sustainable Structures Ltd are flat-tack. Three years ago he had three employees. Now he has "17 or 18". Such rapid expansion has left him gasping as he expands his network of builders trained in straw-bale construction. Business is so good, in fact, that if he were asked to build all the houses that Sustainable Structures is designing, he'd have enough work for the next 30 months. He has about 18 houses under way at the moment. Evan is passionate about straw houses, for their environmental friendliness and comfort, and says they're suitable for any sort of climate. "I built one in North Carolina, which has rainfall you wouldn't believe." He's built everything from cottages to three-storeyed mansions, most of them timber-framed with straw infill, and they've cost anywhere between $100,000 and $1.5m. Some people decide to do a lot of the work themselves, others don't have the time or opportunity, although most choose to help install the straw bales. The houses can be as conventional-looking or individual as people want. To demonstrate what he talks about - "try before you buy" - Evan has built a straw-bale house, called Ruatuna, at Opotiki. People can go and stay a night in it, and decide whether straw bale is for them. About 50-60 have done so in the months since it was finished. All the houses he designs are double-glazed and computer-modelled for maximum passive-solar benefits. Straw-bale houses generally cost about the same as a conventional house because they include extra costs such as double-glazing, but they are 32 percent more energy-efficient. That's money well-spent," says Evan. They also offer a more-constant indoor temperature.
A New Zealand family of four living in a house like Ruatuna could expect to need winter heating about 12 times during the next 10 years, he says. Many of Evan's clients are older people wanting control over their energy costs in retirement. "A conventional 30-year-old New Zealand house has great fluctuations in the temperature inside the house day-to-day, season-to-season. Older people are more attuned to that." Environmental cost is another important factor. Building with straw, an untreated by-product, is "lighter on the planet" than other products. "That's not being a hippy, that's being a thoughtful New Zealander," says Evan. "None of us wears jandals and a beard." Every three-bedroomed house built in New Zealand produces six tonnes of rubbish to go to the landfill. "Our house had eight 44-gallon drums, and four went to recycling." The US burns enough straw each year to build a million houses, while cutting down trees 75 years old to build houses, says Evan. "In that life cycle, you could have had 70 million houses built from a used product. In California, they've made it illegal to burn the straw, so they truck it to Arizona to burn, and the smoke blows back to California."
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## AQUENTIUM, Inc. Signs Worldwide Agreement With GLOBAL FRANTECH to Market Licenses for Disaster Relief Housing Structures in 220 Countries. http://www.emailwire.com
Aquentium Worldwide Disaster Relief Housing Structure For Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornados, And Floods To Be Licensed By Global FranTech Group
( EMAILWIRE.COM, July 28, 2006 ) JAKARTA, Indonesia. -– Aquentium, Inc.,(OTC:AQNM) Worldwide Disaster Relief Housing. (Aquentium) signed a exclusive agreement with Global FranTech Group and FranTech Indonesia International Licensing (FranTech), of Jakarta, Indonesia which grants FranTech the right to license and market Aquentium Disaster Relief Housing Structures licenses through FranTech's network of 600 agents in 220 countries to Governments and Enterprises around the world.
The company explained that the Aquentium, Inc., services are uniquely suited to meet the "Global Disaster Relief Housing " needs of most countries. The company's disaster relief housing structures for hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, and floods housing system allows for quick and secure disaster relief in a simple, safe, easy to use and 60 minute re-deployable instant house structure format.
Mark Taggatz, CEO of Aquentium, said, "We chose FranTech because of their tremendous geographic reach and proven track record in establishing licensing agreements. With more than 35 years of experience, FranTech knows international housing, trade policy, law, marketing, investment banking, and technology transfer and research. Its broad expertise, coupled with access to key governmental decision makers, provides services uniquely valuable to Aquentium disaster relief housing structures licensing overseas."
The company explained that FranTech's mission is to foster the development of housing and human settlement directed towards basic infrastructure for the low-income population and a healthy environment through efficient and effective management for the global economy by providing a global perspective, e-government infrastructures, alternative investments to housing developers, marketers, manufacturers and innovators on newly emerging and preemptive housing technologies. It offers world-class solutions for the licensing and transfer of USA and Worldwide innovations to emerging economies.
Philip Nadeau, CEO of FranTech, said, "We see a tremendous market worldwide for Governments needs for disaster relief housing structures through out the world and already have interest from several countries Governments for disaster relief housing structures. We plan on developing brand name recognition and positioning of Aquentium with many governmental agencies covering (Very Simple Housing and Human Settlements ) divisions where we already have relationships in place."
About Aquentium, Inc (OTC: AQNM)
The Aquentium,Inc., and its wholly owned subsidiary, H.E.R.E. International, Inc., (Housing & Emergency Relief Efforts) has successfully designed both a housing and community infrastructure that provides people from around the world with a sense of community in a direst of conditions.
They have developed the housing and human settlements of the future directed toward basic infrastructure for disaster relief and for the low-income population of the world. This will provide a safe and secure year round environment anywhere in the world for any type of planned event or unplanned catastrophic condition.
The H.E.R.E. company is dedicated to improving the basic global standard of living for third world countries for human beings worldwide, and in many cases , where there is no standards at all.
The H.E.R.E. company provides a patented housing technology which uniformly can be assembled any where in the world.The entire structure is fully assembled and shipped within a container, ready to be installed upon deployment. Their muti-use structures can be remotely located or re-located in time sensitive situations.
The patented invention utilizes a 20 foot or 40 foot container that once fully deployed expands into a 450 foot - 900 foot house complete with electricity and plumbing.
The deployable model unit includes a two bedroom with shower, kitchen appliances, and a living room.
The focus of H.E.R.E. is to become the worldwide leader in sustainable housing and disaster solutions. One of its many advantages is that their patented technology enables them to licenses manufacturing and distribution facilities through the Global FranTech Group and FranTech Indonesia strategically worldwide to better serve the demand.
They are also developing many new areas of de-re-deployable containerized structures (both permanent and temporary); modular, site-built, and kit structures for all applications including first-response, military,commercial, municipal, retail and disaster relief; drinking water systems, non-chemical based sanitation systems; bio-diesel, solar and wind-powered electricity renewable energy, and insulated panels. Also in conjunctions with several global universities the are collaborating on the worlds first " "AUTONOMUS HOUSE" by 2010.
About Global FranTech Group : FranTech consists of core partners surrounded by interlocking networks of consultants and affiliates in key trading countries and disciplines.
They have over thirty-five years of experience with their proven partners. In addition, FranTech has proven track records in assembling, negotiating and consummating trade, licensing, technological and financial agreements; they pool strengths drawn from experience in international housing, trade policy, law, marketing, alternative investments, hedge funds, investment banking and forex & futures technology research. This broad expertise, coupled with access to key governmental and business decision makers in 220 countries, provides services uniquely valuable to Aquentium in the restructuring global economy. Aquentium is pleased to commence a strong working relationship with Global FranTech Group.
FranTech's mission is to foster the development of the global economy by providing a global perspective to Housing, Settlement developers, investors, developers, marketers, manufactures, and innovators of newly emerging and preemptive housing technologies. They offer world-class solutions for the licensing and transfer of USA and Worldwide innovations to emerging economies in 220 countries worldwide for over thirty-five years.
For information on this exclusive housing technology contact: Rosalin Handayani, President ; FranTech Indonesia at; (62)-21-6307951
President@eFranTechIndonesia.com ; CEO@FranTechUSA.com ; http://www.efrantechindonesia.com
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