Australian manufacturing engineering company Modra Hayes has won a $1.25 million Federal Government grant to build a Mass Production Facility on the Yorke Peninsula, to build their unique portable building the modpodTM.

The grant, which has been matched by investment company FP Investment Partners Pty Ltd, will generate about 80 jobs at the Warooka factory as Modra Hayes builds the modpodTM, an innovative composite fibre portable building, service and storage product.

Pictured at the SAIIF Grant Announcement Ceremony from left, MD FP Investment Partners Joshua Fuoco, Management Consultant John Noonan, SA Treasurer Kevin Foley, Federal Senator Kim Carr, Modra Hayes Founder Simon Modra.

Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Senator Kim Carr and South Australian Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Industry and Trade Kevin Foley announced the grant on November 20. The South Australian Innovation Investment Fund (SAIIF) grant was introduced to attract innovative new manufacturers in the wake of Mitsubishi’s closure in 2008.

The modpodTM is fully self-contained and furnished, with space for singles, couples, families or for service and storage applications. It is suitable for the diverse range of emergency accommodation needs arising from natural or man-made disasters such as earthquake, tsunami, fire, flood, hurricane, cyclone, war, terrorism and urban slums resulting from economic
hardship. The modpodTM is also ideal accommodation for mining, defence and even caravan parks.

The design variations for the modpodTM are limitless – they can be racked and stacked in three dimensions allowing multi storey complexes.

View a four-minute YouTube video of the modpodTM

At its Warooka facility, Modra Hayes is performing innovative research into revolutionary hybrid bio-composite materials. This R&D will lead to the development and fabrication of modpodTM out of annual renewable crops allowing miners and other industry with carbon credit issues to move from carbon debt into carbon credit. The modpod has an expected lifetime of at least 100 years.

The Modra Hayes mass production facility will begin construction at Warooka in December 2009, with the first modpodTM scheduled to roll off the production line in June 2010. The majority of employment opportunities generated will be manufacturing jobs on the modpodTM production line, although there will also be a complement of management and supervisory
positions created. The factory will create up to 10 modpodTM in each eight-hour shift.

BACKGROUND

The modpodTM was designed by Simon Modra and Ashley Hayes to provide innovative and affordable accommodation, service and storage solutions for a wide range of markets. Modra and Hayes started their company in 2003, designing and constructing innovative and stylish furniture and fit outs for the hospitality industry using hybrid-composite fibre materials.
The modpodTM can be self contained with power, water and waste water tanks incorporated, or the modpodTM can be connected to conventional infrastructure. One modpodTM can be transported on a semi-trailer and lifted into place with a three tonne forklift.

Two modpodTM can be transported on a semi-trailer, and three on a b-double. The basic modpodTM Unit is the size of a standard 20 foot High Cube shipping container and can be transported by road, rail, sea or air.

Once on site, the modpodTM takes about 10 minutes to set up, including connection to local power, water and waste water systems, if designed to connect to local infrastructure.

Construction Materials

modpod-boardTM  The modpodTM is made out of a hardwearing composite fibre material called “modpodboardTM” which has superior strength and
durability to other alternatives and comes in a wide range of finishes and colours.

modpod-boardTM also has application in the traditional housing and construction marketplace.

modpod-boardTM is water proof, fire resistant, has superior thermal and acoustic insulation qualities and never needs painting in its life time.

Six-times the strength of steel by weight, modpod-boardTM presents an alternative to panel products such as Blueboard, Gyprock, Drywall, Compressed Fibre Cement (CFC), Plasterboard, timber veneers, steel or aluminium panels and other panel alternatives for external or internal ceilings, walls, floors, kitchens and bathrooms.

Modra Hayes can provide modpod-boardTM panels in a variety of sizes up to 4m x 2m, and can also provide a service to join and flush the panels up to 14m in length.

CONSTRUCTION & EXPANSION OF modpodTM Mass Production Facility Operations Modra Hayes has an aggressive growth strategy based upon a franchise model for interstate and overseas expansion.

Most manufacturers of transportable products build a manufacturing facility in one location and then transport the products over long distances to their final destination. Modra Hayes intends to mobilise modpodTM mass production facilities to locations of major need for emergency or temporary housing anywhere in the world.

Modra Hayes has designed a set of automated manufacturing tools to build the modpodTM in the new modpodTM MPF