Wales showcases ingenuity at IDEX 2009

Exhibiting at this years IDEX in Abu Dhabi are Concrete Canvas and Faun; two companies new to the region but arriving with fresh, innovative and award winning ideas.

Concrete Canvas will be introducing a ground breaking material technology called Concrete Cloth that allows concrete to be used in a completely new way. Concrete Cloth was originally developed for the award winning Concrete Canvas Shelters (CSS), a rapidly deployable hardened shelter packaged in a bag that requires only water and air for construction.

The 16sqm CSS variant can be deployed by 2 people without any training in under 40 minutes and is ready to use in only 12 hours.

The key to CCS is the use of inflation to create a surface that is optimised for compressive loading. This allows thin walled concrete structures to be formed which are both robust and lightweight. CCS consist of a cement impregnated fabric (Concrete Cloth) bonded to the outer surface of a plastic inner which forms a Nissen-Hut shaped structure once inflated.

Concrete Canvas have been recognised for the creativity behind their product, receiving awards such as the: BSI Sustainable Design Award, British Cement Association Innovation Award, European Business Plan Innovation Prize, Imperial College New Business Challenge and Oxford Business Plan Competition.

Faun boasts a tradition of constant technical innovation stretching back more than 159 years. The technical advances made by Faun have contributed towards credible environmental protection and the company's sense of responsibility for tomorrow's world has helped Faun become a market leader.

Faun will be launching Trackway - a heavy duty aluminium track, ideal for temporary roadways - into the Middle Eastern market during Idex after experiencing immense success in Europe.

Trackway is proving to be an important part of Faun's export business, manufacturing aluminium roadways for military and non government organisations. The launch of Trackway in Europe doubled turnover for Faun year on year since 2006, the majority of this has been through export business and after recently winning two prestigious contracts to the value of over £8m ($11.4m) the figures continue to rise.

Committed to increasing the profile of Trackway - which is now a core product at their North Wales manufacturing facility - Faun plan further growth and will consequently be looking for distributors during IDEX

Faun's "track" record so far has involved supplying Tank bridges, floating bridges, assault boats and ground surfacing materials to the British Army, Royal Navy and Air Force - the ground surfacing materials are suitable for portable roadways and aircraft operations.