Robert Platts, B.Sc. Civil Eng. (UNB), SM (MIT) 1957; P. Eng. R&D is Bob’s work and hobby, at first in housing, low-rise and high-rise: housing production, performance, problem-solving; new materials, components, systems, test methods. First helping build the housing R&D program at NRC Canada, he then pushed ahead to found Scanada Consultants Limited, 1968-1997 – the pioneer engineering firm in this field. He devised bond testing devices for fiber-plastic composites while helping develop and test stressed skin/structural sandwich panel systems, and helped reach award-winning breakthroughs in both analyzing and controlling heat and moisture flows and problems in the building envelope, with more inventions for testing, metering, modeling.
Robert worked with major builders, manufacturers and govt. groups throughout North America (incl. high Arctic), UK, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Eastern Europe, Japan and the Caribbean. Following Scanada, further Caribbean work sparked his inventions in affordable “hurricane hardeners” for existing houses. Finally, and still happily, he works with his KPC Capability founder-partners on inventing, prototyping and testing assistive devices.
