GE Plastics (European HQ: PO Box 117, NL-4600 AC Bergen op Zoom) has targeted building and construction as its next major market worldwide, and has opened up the European phase of this with a $ 2m showcase facility at its Bergen op Zoom/Netherlands HQ. Stressing that the products on show are actually on the market, GEP's new "Living Environments Europe programme" (LEEp) – see Plasteurope.com No 10 – shows the growing contribution of engineering and high performance plastics in building and construction today. Products range from air-circulating curtain walling of double-glass plus polycarbonate sheet (with LCD coating to make it transparent or opaque at the touch of a switch) to cladding and roof tiling moulded in recycled modified PPO, and from energy-saving lighting based on PBT to corrosion-resistant boiler flue systems in polyetherimide.

A centrepoint of the permanent display is a Canadian-designed house, single-storey, made of extruded rigid PVC box profiles filled with concrete, and with all other cladding and fittings using advanced plastics systems, for example "Noryl" (modified PPO) of GEP.

The LEEp is planned as a European centre where GEP and partner companies can show their products to architects, builders and legislators, with the aim of becoming a Living Showcase for plastics in construction (and not necessarily restricted to GE plastics materials). It follows the completion a few years ago of a full-size house at GE's world HQ at Pittsfield, USA, but with the key difference that the European centre focuses on available products and systems on the European market.

READER SERVICE: Detailed press information "LEEp" including all new GEP-applications: PIE-No. 36296.