“Construction industry showing encouraging signs of change to offsite methods”

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Speaking at Explore Offsite Futures at Birmingham’s NEC last week (24th November 2016), Fusion’s head of business development, Robert Clark spoke about the past, present and future opportunities for offsite manufacturing, saying he was starting to see encouraging signs of adoption by the construction industry.

As a designer and manufacturer of light gauge steel frames used by some of the UK’s most significant developers, Fusion is at the forefront of driving education and awareness of how offsite manufacturing methods hold the key to the future of construction in this country.

In his presentation to an audience of around 180 delegates from across all disciplines within the construction industry, Robert outlined the history of Fusion. He spoke about its experience in designing and building frames for low rise housing units through to high rise apartment blocks, and how its strategic view now is to focus on low rise, volume house building to help reduce the UK’s desperate shortage.

Robert recounted stories dating back 15 years when some of Fusion’s first projects were completed and little was really know or understood about the possibilities for offsite manufactured steel frames. Looking at the present, he referred to the widely-read Farmer Review: ‘Modernise or Die’, facing the truth about the drastic shortage of housing in the UK and the devastating decline of skilled labour in the construction industry.

Robert said: “The construction industry – or house building in particular, is faced with a dire situation. We’re still trying to make traditional building methods work but as Mark Farmer said in his review, radical steps need to be taken if we are to avoid an ‘inexorable decline’.”

With offsite recommended as one of a number of solutions, Robert explained projects which were currently underway using Fusion’s intelligent end to end service of design and manufacture and build – but pointed out that up until now, projects have largely been one off developments.

Robert continued: “A change in mindset needs to happen and I’m pleased to say it’s starting to. If we’re to make a serious impact on the construction process and housing shortage in the UK, offsite manufacturing needs to work in collaboration and as part of a developer’s integrated supply chain.”

Robert explained how Fusion was starting to see encouraging signs of change and an adoption of offsite manufacturing methods, from school building projects to a trial programme with the UK’s largest house builder. He also alluded to a branding idea called ‘4LP Homes’ or ‘four little pigs’, the fourth pig having his home made out of steel – strong, warm and built in a factory.

Robert was one of 16 speakers at today’s Explore Offsite Futures event – run as part of series of one day conference and exhibitions creating a platform for construction clients and their professional advisers to explore the latest offsite construction solutions, providing a dynamic and interactive learning experience for all visitors.

For further information visit www.fusionbuild.com and www.exploreoffsite.co.uk.
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Window security – a clear solution

Window security is a key design requirement with all market leading systems tested to the PAS 24 standard to meet the demands of the Secure By Design (SBD) initiative and Building Regulations Approved Document Q (ADQ).

Automated windows that are utilised for ventilation strategies will also need to comply to the standard, which requires the actuators to resist 3000N of negative force when the window is closed. This is becoming commonplace in applications such as school refurbishment where façade automation remains a popular and cost effective solution of providing improved ventilation performance over manually operated windows.

The SECO N 24 25 twin actuator from SE Controls has successfully passed the PAS 24 test and in addition to presenting physical resistance to intruders, it also provides a signal to the controller, should the window fail to close fully, to maintain the integrity of the security system, as requested by the SBD schools standard. Two locking points in one neat enclosure with programmable gasket relief optimise weather performance and security to meet BS 6375 parts 1,2 and 3 in addition to the PAS 24 test.

Bespoke fixing brackets and reinforcement to the window is often required to provide sufficient strength for the fixing, which is usually the weakest point of resistance, as the actuator provides 2 x 4000N of resistance to forced opening.

The ability to manufacture bespoke body lengths allows SE Controls to locate the locking points on different size windows exactly as tested, relative to the corners, to maintain consistency of performance and compliance. Test conducted with an actuator located at the centre of a vent will either not pass the test or can only be utilised for different widths.

Martin Oates

Similar to EN12101-2, the fabrication and installation solution requires a process that is audited by an independent notified body and must be re-tested annually.

If you have requirements for SBD or ADQ certified automated windows, please contact the SE Controls team or visit www.secontrols.com.

Written by Martin Oates – Commercial Director with SE Controls
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PFC Corofil launches brand new versatile fire protection solution

Seeking to continually provide fire protection solutions, which meet high standards of quality, stand up to challenging requirements and also offer easy on-site installation, PFC Corofil is pleased to introduce PFC Universal Wrap to the market.

The multi application material, comprising an intumescent composition based on elastomeric thermoplastic polymers and binders, provides a versatile solution for apertures containing plastic and metallic insulated and non insulated pipes, offering up to 2 hours fire protection.

Available in 25m rolls and easy to install, PFC Universal Wrap provides consistent protection by wrapping multiple layers around each size of pipe penetration to provide high volume expansion and pressure seal. In the event of a fire, as the differing plastics soften in the heat, PFC Universal Wrap expands to close off the void left by the pipe, helping to contain the spread of the fire.

PFC’s newest product, which has been tested to EN 1366-3 2009, is CE marked and suitable for a variety of applications, including:

  • Patress coated panel systems through drywall (wrap in a batt)
  • Various thicknesses and densities of insulated pipework
  • Installation directly into drywall
  • Masonry floors
  • One product fits pipe sizes up to a 250mm diameter

Describing PFC Corofil’s brand new fire protection solution, Business Director Calum Irvine commented: “We’re very excited to introduce this new product to our range. PFC Universal Wrap further demonstrates our commitment to providing versatile fire protection materials, able to meet the demands of building and fire regulations and providing the contractor with easy to install solutions that deliver quality and peace of mind.”

For more information and technical details, please visit www.pfc-corofil.com or send your particular pipe configurations to tech@pfc-corofil.com.
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A top deck finish for Worksop Bus Station from Encasement

‘Circa’ and ‘Quadra’ pre-formed decorative column casings from Encasement are helping provide a practical aesthetic and comfortable environment for passengers and staff using Worksop’s £3.2 million bus station.

Handling around 1 million passengers each year, the bus station is has rapidly become a landmark in the town centre since it was opened and the main building boasts a range of facilities including a café, a staffed information and ticket area, as well as free Wi-fi and CCTV monitoring for security and passenger safety. Sustainable design features, such as Solar PV cells and rainwater harvesting are also incorporated to help reduce energy consumption.

As the bus station is predominantly a glazed structure to create an open and environment and provide plenty of natural light, the designers wanted to ensure that the structural steel supports were concealed to improve the finish and attractiveness of the interior. As a result, 15 separate, circular, rectangular and square column casings from Encasement were used to meet the design brief.

All of the Encasement column casings are manufactured from pre-formed plywood, which are finished with a decorative and hard-wearing Formica F6305 ‘Limed Strand’ laminated surface. This not only makes the casings highly durable and resistant to scuffing, essential in a busy environment, but also integrates with the bus station’s interior colour scheme.

In addition to three 350mm diameter ‘Circa’ column casings, Encasement also supplied and installed two 400mm square ‘Quadra’ casings and 10 rectangular ‘Quadra’ casings measuring 250mm x 480mm.

Located around the perimeter of the bus station’s interior, the casings stand 5150mm high and were cut and fitted precisely to accommodate low level bulkheads, as well as structural beams and M&E services in the building.

Encasement’s Managing director, Martin Taylor, commented: “Circa and Quadra casings are perfectly suited to projects of this type, where the need to improve the interior aesthetics and provide a practical casing solution can be address with a single product. The versatility of our pre-formed plywood casings coupled with their cost effectiveness and durable laminated finish have been put to great use at Worksop bus station.”

For more information please visit www.encasement.co.uk.
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BRE announce live workplace well-being pilot project

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BRE has unveiled plans to undertake a pilot project to measure the real-world health and well-being of building occupants by creating the Healthy Research Building – the UK’s first operational workplace research environment.

The project will see BRE refurbish one of its existing office buildings at its head office in Watford and create a fully operational office that will enable occupants to be monitored whilst they go about their day-to-day work. The aim of the project is to enable BRE to research the impact of indoor environments on human health and well-being whilst generating evidence-based information that can be used in practical ways to create healthier indoor spaces.

It follows the announcement that the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) and BRE are pursuing alignments between the WELL Building Standard™ (WELL) and BREEAM that will make it easier for projects pursuing both standards.

The building, currently home to 60 members of staff, will be reconfigured into BRE’s Healthy Research Building and will form part of the company’s Innovation Park. The refurbishment will pursue BREEAM and WELL certifications and once work has been completed staff will be allowed to freely use the office whilst being monitored using advanced sensor technology and remote monitoring. Data relating to the health and well-being of the staff will then be analysed by BRE with the view of providing the industry with a greater understanding of how different products, materials and internal configurations affect occupants.

“It has been claimed that we spend over 90% of our time indoors and in an office environment, 90% of the cost is the people inside,” commented Martin Townsend, Director of Sustainability at BRE Global. “It is therefore vital that we better understand the effects that indoor environments are having on their occupants. By refurbishing one of our offices to achieve BREEAM and the WELL Building Standard and integrating state- of-the-art monitoring technology we will be creating the UK’s first living laboratory.”

In addition to creating the Healthy Research Building, BRE are calling upon the industry to help participate in the project through the undertaking of specific product testing to ascertain the impacts on occupant health and well-being.

“The health and well-being agenda is such an important part of our sustainable built environment and something that needs to be industry inclusive,” continued Martin. “As such, we don’t just want to research our own staff to drive this agenda, we want to work with the industry to create an inclusive agenda on research. To ensure we actively undertake the research that the industry needs we’re calling on the industry to work with us on an industry supported health and well-being research programme.”

The announcement comes at a time when the industry is increasingly looking at the importance of occupant well-being and the realisation that there is a huge gap in understanding how the built environment impacts biological sustainability as opposed to just environmental. The alignment between BREEAM and WELL will now provide a more cohesive approach to delivering projects that place sustainability and occupant health and well-being at the top of the agenda, and the Healthy Research Building will ensure that real-world data can be ascertained to help make informed decisions.

For more information on BREEAM visit: www.breeam.com and on WELL visit: www.wellcertified.com
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Explore Offsite Zone to be showcased at Ecobuild

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  • Offsite construction expert voice added to the schedule for Ecobuild 2017
  • A series of masterclass seminars will explore the role offsite construction technology will play in tackling the housing crisis and the efficient delivery of infrastructure projects

Ecobuild has announced that it will be partnering with Cogent Consulting, leading experts in offsite construction and Radar Communications, the organisers of the Explore Offsite series of events and conferences to deliver a focused exhibition zone and series of offsite masterclasses for the 2017 edition of the show.

Explore Offsite at Ecobuild, in partnership with Offsite Magazine and the Offsite Hub, will be a dedicated show feature focused on supporting attendees in learning more about the exciting opportunities offered by offsite technology in the future of construction, through a three-day seminar programme and exhibition. By focusing on technology and product innovation, the extensive calendar of masterclasses and demonstrations will highlight the benefits of offsite technology across the built environment – from housebuilding to infrastructure.

The seminars will take place alongside exhibitions showcasing each of the six main types of offsite construction – modular volumetric; steel; timber; concrete; roofing and MEP/pods.

Offsite construction is contributing to resource efficiency, the circular economy and diversifying the skill set in the built environment, all of which will be evidenced by a range of leading exhibitors representing the sector at Ecobuild 2017.

Explore Offsite at Ecobuild comes at a time when the Government is acknowledging the substantial potential of offsite construction. A white paper to be released this month, announced by housing minister Gavin Barwell MP, will look at ways to utilise offsite technology to build 100,000 modular homes over the course of this Parliament2, in a bid to tackle the housing shortage.

With the UK also facing a potential shortage of primary school places, Explore Offsite at Ecobuild will feature the latest innovations in the use of offsite construction to create additional classrooms or add storeys to existing school buildings1.

Visitors will be able to see how extensions can be manufactured away from the building and craned into place in a matter of weeks – offering a sustainable choice by reducing vehicle journeys and increasing efficiency.

Martin Hurn, brand director at Ecobuild, said: “Offsite is clearly the future of construction technology, and it’s happening now. Offsite presents many opportunities for the private and public sectors. Currently some projects can deliver a modular home in 48 hours, which has huge implications for the industry. Our audience wants the latest technologies, systems and processes, and Ecobuild can find no better partners than Cogent Consulting and Radar Communications to bring this to the stage in 2017.”

Darren Richards, Managing Director of Cogent Consulting, said: “Increasingly the construction industry is turning its attention to the substantial benefits offsite technology can offer. In order to make the most of what is possible, clients, contractors and industry at large must have up to date knowledge of what offsite technology suppliers can offer.”

Ecobuild wants to hear from companies who are championing innovation in sustainable construction, design and energy in the built environment. If you are interested in helping shape the 2017 show, find out more at www.ecobuild.co.uk.
Learn more about Explore Offsite at Ecobuild at  www.ecobuild.co.uk/exploreoffsite
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Vortice fans selected for award winning regeneration project

Voted the UK’s best regeneration project in the National Housebuilder Awards, Branston Leas by St Modwen Homes, has selected Vortice system 1 centrifugal Quadro fans for its two, three, four and five bedroom properties in Burton upon Trent. Branston Leas was named the best regeneration project in the UK thanks to the many measurable economic, environmental and educational improvements that the development has brought to the local area.

Vortice

Technical Marketing Manager Jennifer Quinn said “We are delighted to be working alongside local electrical contractor PCE Installations of Burton Upon Trent in supplying our range of Quadro fans to this prestigious local project. These energy efficient ventilation fans are stylishly designed and fit beautifully into the interior decor at Branston Leas. ”

The Vort Quadro is an elegant centrifugal fan which comes in inbuilt or surface mounted versions.

Full BIM models and specification details can be found on the Vortice website www.vortice.ltd.uk.
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Stanley is proud finalist in Security & Fire Excellence Awards

STANLEY Security is pleased to announce it is a Customer Care Initiative of the Year finalist in the prestigious Security & Fire Excellence Awards 2016 for its Customer Excellence Initiative.

Now in their eighteenth year, the Security & Fire Excellence Awards have consistently broken new ground in highlighting the very best people, projects and processes that the security and fire sectors have to offer. A high number of quality entries were received this year –17% up from last year – making finalist status an even greater achievement than ever.

As part of the Customer Care Initiative award entry, STANLEY Security explained its Customer Experience Team strategy for delivering customer service excellence. This strategy is based around bespoke management, whereby customers receive a dedicated Customer Management Executive to support their needs alongside their Account Manager; a robust CRM system to aid management of all aspects of the customer relationship; and a Customer Management Team which centralises the customer contact point to a single dedicated team. This approach helps differentiates STANLEY Security’s customer experience and has proven to be highly regarded by customers, which is reflected in a consistent fall in customer attrition over the last three years consecutively.

Concise, achievable KPIs have been established across all five STANLEY Security customer touchpoints: account management, installation, service, monitoring and billing. These address all call centre customer interactions, complaint handling by the Customer Management Team and retention tracking to both measure the percentage of Win Backs of contracts expiring and analyse all reason codes to highlight where process or system improvements are required. The KPIs are regularly measured and monitored and lead to genuine, actionable activities to further feed in to the customer experience programme.

Continuous improvement is a key factor in the success of STANLEY Security’s customer service strategy. STANLEY Security staff receive ongoing training to enhance customer experience, including weekly call coaching at the National Call Centre. Furthermore, the company is establishing a Customer Journey which ‘hugs’ the customer from initial contract through to re-signing or termination of contract. Going forward this process will provide a Net Promoter Score (NPS) – a management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of customer relationships. Customers are then engaged in a discussion about the feedback they provided through the NPS survey process, with in-house results used in continuous improvement workshops to feed back to the business.

“We are delighted to have achieved finalist status at the Security & Fire Excellence Awards this year” states Ray Parfitt, Head of Business Excellence at STANLEY. “STANLEY Security considers a positive, unique customer experience is vital to clearly differentiate ourselves in a crowded market. We have invested considerably in achieving this and have a clear and concise roadmap for reaching customer service excellence in 2018; we are certainly well on our way to achieving that. Becoming a finalist for the Customer Excellence Award is a great recognition of all the work put in by our team.” Leanne Taylor, Head of Customer Services also added that “The Customer Experience is so much more than a paper exercise, you really have to have passion and belief. I am lucky enough to have a strong, creative and passionate team that is committed to providing a unique experience to all our customers. The National Call Centre and Customer Management Team have fully embraced the Customer Excellence Initiative taking pride in all they do internally and externally by remembering the key sentence ‘always put the customer first’.’’

Winners of the Security & Fire Excellence Awards 2016 will be announced on 23rd November at the evening ceremony held at LONDON HILTON ON PARK LANE.

For more information on STANLEY Security, please go to www.stanleysecurity.co.uk
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Saint-Gobain Partners with UK-GBC for Industry Training Programme

Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland has teamed up with UK-GBC for its Learning and Development Programme. The partnership, which began in October, will continue throughout the rest of 2016 and into 2017, equipping the industry with the knowledge and skills to help create a more sustainable built environment.

Saint-Gobain and UK-GBC are working closely as part of the partnership to carefully plan the courses to provide the best information and skills necessary for built environment professionals, sustainability leaders and businesses to grow their understanding of sustainable building.

The partnership aims to achieve this through the delivery of a compelling message on sustainable buildings across 3 learning levels – awareness, understanding, and application.

Shenaaz Chenia, Director of Industry and Community Training for Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland, said: “The programme offers a broad range of skills to widen the industry’s understanding of the impact that creating sustainable buildings can have on the environment and the occupants. Partnering with UK-GBC is a great fit for us, as its goals to encourage and grow thought leadership on sustainability in the built environment, as well as the emphasis on comfort, health and wellbeing, perfectly match our vision for the industry.”

The next course in 2016 is:

Integrated Planning: Creating Sustainable Communities, Wednesday 30th November

Understand ways to engage stakeholders and plan sustainability at a community and citywide scale. Learn how environmental issues, planning policy and sustainability-focused tools can inform decision making at the planning stage. Find out more and register here.

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MEDITE SMARTPLY highly commended in Energy Awards 2016

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Names from left to right: Pat Beardmore, Operations Director at MEDITE, Pat Breen, Engineering Manager at MEDITE, James Ryan, Maintenance Supervisor at MEDITE

MEDITE SMARTPLY has been highly commended at the Sustainable Energy Awards 2016 in the large energy category.

The event, which took place on the 3rd November 2016, brings together leading innovators and companies that demonstrate a proven track record of going beyond best practice in integrated energy management.

This award, in part, is a result of the MEDITE SMARTPLY Operation Excellence programme that began in 2014.

The programme initiatives consisted of product and process flow optimisation, variable speed drive monitoring, controls, lighting, ISO 50001 certification, electric transport, and a steam turbine generating onsite electricity driven by their own biomass steam boiler.

The company has also undertaken employee awareness initiatives including displaying energy targets in real time at operator stations, children’s Energy Calendar competition and an Energy Fun Day.

The company has systematically and effectively focused resources on opportunities for energy reduction saving the company in excess of €250,000/per annum in energy costs.

“This award is an independent external acknowledgement of the hard work and efforts that all of our teams across Europe have put in from day one. From our new technologies, such as our Mat Preheater, compressed air energy reduction and process pumps upgrades, to our engineering works on LED lighting and airflow optimisation, everyone has had a part to play,” comments Pat Beardmore, Operations Director.

“The innovation and passion shown by all members of MEDITE SMARTPLY reflects what a truly energetic place it is to work and grow. We will continue our work and chase the top award next year.”

The company has set its sights on achieving an energy reduction in excess of 10% in the coming years. With five projects already in planning in order to achieve these ambitious goals MEDITE SMARTPLY will continue to lead the way in energy management in its sector.

For more information please visit www.smartply.com.
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