About TopK USA
For Architectural Firms
For Engineering Firms
For Home Developers
For Real Estate Investors
About Us
TopK USA was founded by Stan Weatherby III and Jiayin Wang as a North American extension of a much larger global conglomerate, TopK Global. This conglomerate is compromised of a steel mill, Ikea, a shipping container manufacturing facility which is currently producing 300 shipping containers per day, a wood processing facility which sources its logs from West Virginia, USA and an aluminum extrusion and glass manufacturing facility. TopK USA is able to offer high performance manufacturing capabilities, superior quality and extremely competitive pricing due to our shear volume.
Stan Weatherby III is no stranger to mass, large scale construction. He began his own masonry company in 1988 later moving into heavy industrial construction from the ground up for clients such as Home Depot, Lowes and Toys R Us to name a few. His additional heavy structural engineering training allowed him to personally handle all site work, steel, structural steel and masonry for these large projects. Mr. Weatherby has invented and patented several trailers for moving shipping containers, built logistic software for the container industry and is the inventor of numerous technology platforms used worldwide since 1982. His accomplishments in technology include email software companies hosting users into the millions, founder of the challenge response systems, now known as Captcha, responsible for Outlook on the web, co-founder of Flussonic, the multi-media software company, an integral creator of video streaming for Doorbot, now known as Ring.com and responsible for founding TopK USA. Leveraging his extensive knowledge in construction, containers and technology, he has created and further developed this phenomenal North American marketplace and its technically advanced offering!
Jiayin Wang began in this industry nearly 40 years ago, starting in the wood processing industry producing superior custom wood products. He then moved into manufacturing the wood flooring for shipping containers, becoming a large owner in a start up shipping container manufacturing facility in Da Lian, China. This facility grew to be the 1,880,000 square foot facility it is today, producing 300 shipping containers a day!
Over a 4 year period, Mr. Weatherby and Mr. Wang co-developed, the shipping container inspired, RDCS modules in Mr. Weatherby’s 30,000 square foot R&D Center, located in Eastern Tennessee (Pictures Below) and are currently hands on in the day to day operations of TopK USA.
Research and Development
Over the a three year period numerous studies were done on how to use shipping containers for residential and commercial structures. The results of the studies indicated several potential health hazards, engineering challenges and cost prohibitive remediation processes. The below images and descriptions represent some of the testing methods used and the results of each test performed internally and the findings of other third party studies.
We have several others tests we have conducted, but felt these were the ones that should be made public and why we decided to invent, design, patent and manufacture our modules.
Rotisserie
Mr. Weatherby designed and fabricated this Container Rotisserie for numerous methods to test the engineering of shipping containers that varied in size, height, weight and age. The Rotisserie allowed Mr, Weatherby to spin any standard width conex box 360 degrees and provided a good platform to conduct tests.
The tests results showed no definitive way to formulate engineering for manufacturing a residential or commercial structure out of shipping containers without guessing and/or over engineering. Variables consisted of inconsistent gauges of steel, floor heights, squareness, and other factors that made it nearly impossible to correctly engineer a structure in a cost effective manner.
Deflection Testing
Several deflection tests were done on numerous containers. These test results showed numerous inconstancies in the shipping container as a diaphragm. Results varied to such a degree that the only correct way to properly engineer a residential or commercial structure, using a shipping container as the main structure, was to engineer each shipping container individually, for its appropriate placement in the structural design.
This method of engineering added several layers complexity as there is no standard on a used container and its certification from the original manufacturer is mooted.
Remediation
Remediation of shipping containers is a “must do”, many people do not understand shipping containers are designed to “kill” what is in them. The fumigation methods used for the walls and ceilings and the chemicals used to treat the floors makes a cocktail of fumes that is extremely hazardous. Mr. Weatherby realized the only way to treat the floors and interior of the shipping container was to completely remove and replace the floor with untreated wood and to “steam” clean all of the interior metal. After this remediation it was necessary to run air quality tests through different temperature variants to ensure there was no chance for gas off.
This made shipping containers an ineffective and cost competitive solution to the customer, unfortunately it is the only, sure fired way to ensure all contaminants from the plant of manufacture, spills, cargo breaks etc are correctly remediated.
Final Results
The final results of all the testing, studies and building of several shipping container homes was to reinvent the shipping container into a Pre-Fabricated building module. As seen in our production line image above, all modules are manufactured in our state of the art facility and follow strict ISO9001 manufacturing procedures. With this strict manufacturing process we can trace any defects down to the grain of sand, this gives you a superior advantage over your competition and provides one of the newest forms of construction methods on the planet.
All of this was done from the love of container homes and designs, but we have taken this a step further. Each one of our modules is engineered and certified by third party ISO inspectors, this takes the guesswork out of engineering and the fear you might be putting someone in a container home that may have had a toxic cargo spill or gas off from the chemical treatments to kill what is in them.
Third Party Test Results of Hazards Associated with Shipping Containers
Neuropsychological | Surprises Perilous | Health Risks by Bromomethane | Experimental Outgassing | Presumed Exposure
For architects and engineers
TopK expedites the architectural design and engineering process by using our proprietary design libraries and unique manufacturing methods. When you partner with us on a project, you gain access to our tools specifically created to expedite your design process, including access to our proprietary pricing matrix, design libraries, unparalleled training and support. ur systems in an extremely short period of time.
Interested in finding out if you qualify to become one of our architectural or engineering firm partners? Simply fill out our short questionnaire by clicking HERE or learn more by downloading our general overview brochures.
Representation of our module manufacturing and the interior Zinc Enriched Primer.
Representation of our module design library for use in all CAD software.
Representation of our module with our Keel framing system and Pex plumbing.
for land developers and Investors
Low cost and rapid deployment expedite your construction time, cuts costs and helps ease some of the pains associated with land development, property constraints, cost to market and design attributes. If your interested to learn more about our RDCS modules and would like to entertain them as part of your next build please feel free to Contact Us and one of our sales professionals will go over your project scope and put you in touch with one of our Architectural or Engineering partner firms or explain to your existing Architect or Engineer how to use our RDCS modules in your next or current development project.
Representation of an apartment complex designed using our RDCS Modules.
Representation of Shipping Container Home look alike using our RDCS Modules.
Representation of another Shipping Container Home look alike with a roof system.
