REP® History
A short (and inevitably incomplete) chronicle about REP® Beams and System.
In virtue of 40 years of successful business and technical tests this brand is now synonym of quality and safety in building and engineering industry as well.
1967 - Each story has its own beginning, and the REP® beams' story does, too. In this particular case, we have to go back in time, about 40 years ago, when - at the end of the fabulous 60's and in the middle of the building industry's boom in Italy – the engineer Salvatore Leone first patented an englobed mixed beam, the precursor of all the REP® beams and girders. The licensees that supported engineer Leone at the very beginning of this venture were only two firms, that divided Italy in two parts, reversing what Garibaldi did one century before: the North was within the field of SEP co. from Milan, whereas the Centre and South of Italy was due to Fornaci Patricelli from Pescara.
1968 – SEP co. began quite immediately to carry out both Italian and foreign projects: first in Switzerland and then in the 70's, with the support of other joint-venture companies, also in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, France, Spain and United States.
1970 – It is the year of the financial crack of Assomeccanica Group, leading the controlled SEP business to fail; SEP's position as licensee was taken over by several companies that had been working as its area agents (i.e. MAER, Cila-Valdadige, CSP and others). 1970 is also the year when the beam of the 1967 was officially nicknamed as REP® (a name already used back in 1956 by engineer Leone when he patented a brick-cement floor) because, besides reminding SEP by assonance, was also the acronym of the three main features behind its concept: the beam should have been “Rapida, Economica e Pratica” (=fast, cheap and practical).
1972 – Two further models were patented - nr. 966-663 and 966-664 - supporting and optimizing the first one. These innovations allowed to double the triangle-shape molded cores and to enlarge the upper stringers of the beams, thus going beyond some limits shown by the former patent, while meeting any users' or market's demands with technical competence and efficiency (as REP® System has always done throughout the years). Indeed, those three models represented such a milestone as for Italian building history, that they are, still today, produced in large quantity by all the imitators (sometimes even ex-licensee) aiming at taking advantage of their name. And this happens altough their patents have already virtually expired or they are technically old and replaced by the latest REP® System's models. Still in 1972, the engineers Mr. Leone and Mr. Pezzi edited the first issue of “Production rules”, fixing a high and guaranteed quality standard both in the industrial process and in the calculation of REP® building works.
1973/1982 – A production of tons and tons, as well as an impressive number of completed works, showed that the market met with enthusiasm the new opportunities given by these half-prefabricated beams as they accelerated the working progress (Rapida=fast), eliminated box caissons, props and shores (Economica=cheap) and optimized the building yard organisation (Pratica= practical). Some interest for these innovations was also shown by the Universities that implemented special studies and researches to assure technicians about the safety of the beams, that were not governed by any law just because they were newborn.
Among the most interesting publications about REP® beams, we find those undersigned by some of the renowned professors of Italian Faculties of Engineering: Giangreco, Puhali, Giordano, Pozzati, Spadea or Amendola, as supported by important Boards and Institutes like CNR, MPI or CIDECT (Comitée International pour le Developmente et l’Etude de la Construction Tubulaire). In these years CIDECT published a survey about features and benefits of the side beams and of the tubular metal pillar's patented model providing openings and brackets as a slot for the beams (aiming at a better anchorage between beams and pillar); actually, these models, together with the previous ones, built the foundation for today REP® System.
1980 - Salvatore Leone and Paola Pezzi established the Edis srl firm, that became the owner of the patent rights about REP® trademarks and System.
1982 – The first Misaligned Beam was launched. The planned use was in pairing with the tubular pillars; it is called misaligned because the provided traverse of the trestleworks towards the middle of the plate allows them to go beyond the panel point, thus eliminating any stump and making a real mixed system even by the bearing on the pillar. The benefits given by this beam (stump steel saving, easy laying, fast assembling), made it successful as the previous ones.
1986 – Four years later a new version of the misaligned beam, capable to be paired even with RC pillars, was introduced, remarkably extending the field of use for this technology.
1990 – The model for a trestlework replacing stumps was patented, to be used for all cases where misaligned beams are not planned or designed. End of the 90's – The earliest modular beams, called TR, were launched as part of REP® System. Invented in order to improve more the technical performance of the beam inside the panel point, they actually provided to optimize also the processing and assembling lines, giving a double benefit - as to the structure and the wallet!
2000 – The REP® Flat plates were patented and became part of REP® System. That invention really made self-bearing a whole level structure of a building, extending the use REP® beams - together with their pros and benefits - as for floors with large span.
2002 – Besides the trestle pillar and the tubular metal pillar, including an aseismic structural knot to connect level and vertical structures more effectively, in 2002 REP® Truss was patented and introduced in the REP® System. This new invention gives the opportunity to get an additional floor beneath the covering.
2005 – The new release of the Calculation software, as always an integral part of the REP® System, was launched. As all the previous releases, (starting from the first pioneering software that in 1967 planned the calculation of a framed structure), the new one included the most advanced level of updated computer technologies and it debtly complied with the laws and standards in force, in order to provide the users of the System, with a full "quality and safety kit" that only REP® trademark can give.
2008 – Rep International srl is established with the purpose to promote REP® System technology in foreigner countries and markets.