new appointment for CoreHaus

Senior appointment for County Durham modular housebuilder

 

Steel-framed modular housebuilder CoreHaus has appointed a new commercial manager as it presses ahead with its ambitious growth plans.

CoreHaus, based from a state-of-art manufacturing facility on Jade Business Park, Murton, near Seaham in County Durham, has appointed Shane Murray to spearhead its commercial team as it continues to expand.

With over 25 years of experience in the construction sector, Shane has extensive practice and knowledge in leading large scale projects, from public buildings and commercial complexes to residential and social housing developments. He has specialist skills in leadership and change management and has delivered a wide range of projects on time and to budget.

At CoreHaus, his main role will be focused on driving the company’s business development pipeline, identifying new business opportunities, negotiating new contracts and onboarding new clients. Shane will also be involved in the development of marketing and growth strategy campaigns.

Scott Bibby, managing director of CoreHaus, said: “We’re about to face a period of rapid growth and now is the right time to create a specific role and bring in a senior manager with the experience and expertise we need to push on with our growth plan.

“Shane is a perfect fit for us, his values align perfectly to the business and he is extremely driven and talented. I am confident that he will quickly become an asset to CoreHaus.”

 

Shane Murray said: “Working across a varied range of housing development projects has enabled me to acquire a diverse set of skills in leadership, commercial contract management and client excellence. These skills complement the CoreHaus team perfectly and strengthens our position as a fast-growing, innovative modular housebuilder.

“Our ambitious five-year strategy and company values were the driving force behind me joining the team and I am excited and privileged to be part of the journey.”

CoreHaus is a modular housebuilder which differs from traditional construction. By adopting modern methods of construction (MMC), CoreHaus homes are built faster, to high quality and are more sustainable and energy-efficient. As part of a five-year plan, the business will focus on building 1,000 modular homes per year, resulting in a 300 + strong workforce across the UK.

CoreHaus is a joint-venture company between Carlton & Co Group, the parent company behind North East based Homes by Carlton, and national social enterprise Fusion21, specialists in public procurement for the built environment.

 

To find out more about CoreHaus, visit: www.corehaus.co.uk

 

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PLANNING APPROVAL FOR UK SPACEPORT CRITICAL

Construction of the UK’s first vertical spaceport is scheduled to begin later this month after it received planning approval from the local authority, Shetland Islands Council in Scotland.

The approval provides Scottish Ministers with a 28-day window to review the application by SaxaVord UK Spaceport. Should Scottish Ministers choose not to call the application in for review, or call it in and agree that the project should proceed, construction of the £43m spaceport can begin.

The privately-funded spaceport will consist of three launchpads at the Lamba Ness peninsula in Unst, allowing for the launch of small satellites into either polar or sun-synchronous, low-earth orbits.

With the ambition of achieving 30 launch events per year, the site will support launches by a range of launch service providers (LSPs) supporting industries and services including telecommunications, media, weather and defence.

Timelines are tight with the target of delivering the first orbital launch from UK soil after the third quarter of this year.

Longer-term, the spaceport is projected to be the catalyst to significant social and economic benefits to Unst in particular, and more widely across Shetland in terms of inward investment and job creation.

Planning approval is the critical first step not only in constructing the UK’s first commercial spaceport. It is also monumental in supporting the UK’s ambitions of becoming a global science superpower and establishing the UK as the European hub for commercial spaceflight.

SaxaVord Spaceport CEO Frank Strang said, “We have been working on bringing the space economy to Shetland for five years, so it is fantastic that the economic benefits are already being felt. We will spend upwards of £43 million [US$57 million] over the next 18 months, rising to £100 million [US$133 million] in the next five years.

“We have already started blasting and crushing stone. Our team will collectively do everything in its power to ensure we can deliver this historic mission for Shetland, Scotland, and the UK.”

“Only the other week, with the Under Secretary of State for Scotland, we hosted several engineers from Edinburgh-based launch company Skyrora, who are committed to launching from our site on Shetland in the next few years.”

 

Source: Aerospace Testing International

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Contractors wanted for modular role on H3AT fusion facility

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has opened up an engagement process for suppliers to create modular skid mounted assemblies for its Hydrogen-3 Advanced Technology (H3AT) fusion energy facility.

The UKAEA’s notice says it is looking to engage with contractors, SMEs, fabricators and assemblers for the fabrication, assembly and testing of five to 10 modular skid mounted assemblies. These assemblies will make up a number of sub-systems that will form the Tritium Plant at the UKAEA’s under-construction H3AT facility at its Culham site.

The contract is valued at £8.75M. The scope and quantity is to be confirmed at the invitation to tender and is subject to preliminary and detailed engineering design phases.

The units will comprise equipment, valves, instrumentation and interconnecting pipework mounted into containment skids. These skids will be required to accommodate equipment and piping in various sizes, approximate footprints of 0.5×0.5m up to 2.8×1.5m and heights 0.5-2.1m (to be confirmed).

Through this process the UKAEA is looking to open engagement with suppliers with the aim of ensuring there is sufficient production capability and capacity to meet the project’s timeline and design requirements. Following the engagement exercise, the UKAEA will issue tenders to procure services for design and provision of equipment through competitively tendered contracts.

UKAEA head of H3AT Damian Brennan said: “The skid manufacturer will bring all components of the H3AT sub system together.  It is a really significant step in the delivery of the H3AT plant.”

The H3AT facility will provide access to scientists and researchers to inform tritium processes for future fusion programmes.

In April last year, Atkins was appointed by the UKAEA to help design the centre, which will contribute to the ITER, DEMO power plant and Step facility.

It will also allow academic and industrial users to research how to process, store and recycle tritium.

Atkins – supported by supply chain partners including Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Ansaldo Nuclear, and FlexProcess – will deliver the preliminary and detailed design of the H3AT tritium recycling loop, comprising storage beds, a distribution system, impurity processing system, and systems to detritiate water and air.

Designed to facilitate the handling, testing and validation of tritium, the loop will allow a range of tests and experiments to be carried out safely and efficiently.

Source: New Civil Engineer

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BREAKTHROUGH FOR BATTERY TECHNOLOGY

A potential breakthrough for production of superior battery technology

 

Micro supercapacitors could revolutionise the way we use batteries by increasing their lifespan and enabling extremely fast charging. Manufacturers of everything from smartphones to electric cars are therefore investing heavily into research and development of these electronic components. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a method that represents a breakthrough for how such supercapacitors can be produced.

“When discussing new technologies, it is easy to forget how important the manufacturing method is, so that they can actually be commercially produced and be impactful in society. Here, we have developed methods that can really work in production,” explains Agin Vyas, doctoral student at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers University of Technology and lead author of the article.

Supercapacitors consist of two electrical conductors separated by an insulating layer. They can store electrical energy and have many positive properties compared to a normal battery, such as much more rapid charging, more efficient energy distribution, and a much greater lifespan without loss of performance, with regards to the charge and discharge cycle. When a supercapacitor is combined with a battery in an electrically powered product, the battery life can be extended many times –up to 4 times for commercial electric vehicles. And whether for personal electronic devices or industrial technologies, the benefits for the end consumer could be huge.

“It would of course be very convenient to be able to quickly charge, for example, an electric car or not have to change or charge batteries as often as we currently do in our smartphones. But it would also represent a great environmental benefit and be much more sustainable, if batteries had a longer lifespan and did not need to be recycled in complicated processes,” says Agin Vyas.

Manufacturing a big challenge

But in practice, today’s supercapacitors are too large for many applications where they could be useful. They need to be about the same size as the battery they are connected to, which is an obstacle to integrating them in mobile phones or electric cars. Therefore, a large part of today’s research and development of supercapacitors is about making them smaller – significantly so.

Agin Vyas and his colleagues have been working with developing ‘micro’ supercapacitors. These are so small that they can fit on the system circuits which control various functions in mobile phones, computers, electric motors and almost all electronics we use today. This solution is also called ‘system-on-a-chip’.

One of the most important challenges is that the minimal units need to be manufactured in such a way that they become compatible with other components in a system circuit and can easily be tailored for different areas of use. The new paper demonstrates a manufacturing process in which micro-supercapacitors are integrated with the most common way of manufacturing system circuits (known as CMOS).

“We used a method known as spin coating, a cornerstone technique in many manufacturing processes. This allows us to choose different electrode materials. We also use alkylamine chains in reduced graphene oxide, to show how that leads to a higher charging and storage capacity,” explains Agin Vyas.

“Our method is scalable and would involve reduced costs for the manufacturing process. It represents a great step forward in production technology and an important step towards the practical application of micro-supercapacitors in both everyday electronics and industrial applications.”

A method has also been developed for producing micro-supercapacitors of up to ten different materials in one unified manufacturing process, which means that properties can be easily tailored to suit several different end applications.

Caption: Micro supercapacitors can increase the lifespan of batteries and reduce their charging time in products like smartphones and electric cars. The image shows a 2 inch wide silicon wafer with integrated micro supercapacitors, manufactured using the CMOS-compatible process developed by Chalmers’ researchers. The wafer can be upscaled to a diameter of 8 inches to fit even more supercapacitor units.
Illustration: Yen Strandqvist

CLICK HERE TO Read the full study

 

The research has been funded by: EU Horizon 2020 (GreEnergy), Vinnova, SAAB.

For more information, please contact:

Agin Vyas, Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience

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FINLAND – Conflict in Ukraine Halts Hanhikivi Nuclear Plant Construction

Hanhikivi-1-site-November-2021

Finland’s Minister for Economic Affairs Mika Lintila told the country’s parliament that he would not be granting a building permit for the Hanhikivi nuclear plant as things stand.

“It’s quite clear that as a consequence of this conflict this project will at least be significantly delayed,” Lintilä told the STT newswire on Thursday.

Fennovoima, the company behind the planned nuclear power plant which will have a Russian reactor and is one third owned by a Finnish subsidiary of Russia’s Rosatom, said it “acknowledges that the ongoing conflict situation may have impacts on the Hanhikivi 1 project”.

It said the “Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the counter measures by EU and western countries as a consequence, pose a major risk for the Hanhikivi 1 project.

“We are very sad about the developments and the situation in Ukraine. There are a lot of people close to our employees in the area and our thoughts are with them.”

According to Finland’s STT news agency, Fennovoima is now waiting to hear what sanctions the EU will impose on Russia before speculating on the project’s future.

Last month licensing work for the Hanhikivi 1 nuclear power plant was said to have reached the “homestretch” with Fennovoima expecting to submit its final licensing materials to the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority by the end of February, with the goal of gaining a construction licence this year.

Fennovoima signed the plant supply contract for Hanhikivi with Rusatom Overseas – Rosatom’s nuclear power plant exports subsidiary – in December 2013. Rosatom offered to build a plant using a 1200 MWe AES-2006 VVER under a fixed-price contract. The Hanhikivi project is owned by Fennovoima, in which a 34% stake is held by RAOS Voima Oy, the Finnish subsidiary set up in 2014 by Rosatom for the purpose of buying a share in the company.

Fennovoima submitted its 250-page construction licence application to Finland’s Ministry of Employment and the Economy for the Hanhikivi plant in June 2015. The government’s decision to issue a construction licence would require a positive assessment of the application by STUK.

Sweden’s Vattenfall halts deliveries from Russia

The state-owned energy giant Vattenfall announced on Thursday that it was “deeply concerned by the serious security situation in Europe and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” and “we have therefore decided that no planned deliveries from Russia to our nuclear power plants will take place until further notice”.

It said it would not place any new orders from Russia for its nuclear power plants until further notice.

What about the situation in Ukraine?

The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine’s update at 09:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Friday 25 February reported that there were “no violations of NPP safe operation limits and conditions. Radioactive situation meets established norms … NPP security divisions and physical protection services are on high alert”.

It also gave an update on the Chernobyl exclusion zone – near the Belarus border in the north of the country – which Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said was under Russian control, according to the TASS news agency. TASS quoted Konashenkov as saying NPP personnel continued to service the facilities and saying that “the radiation level in the area of the nuclear power plant did not exceed the natural background”.

The Ukraine nuclear regulator said that data from the automated radiation monitoring system of the Chernobyl exclusion zone indicated “control levels of gamma radiation dose rate in the exclusion zone were exceeded”. The reason for this, it said, appeared to be connected to the disturbance of the top layer of soil from the movement of heavy military machinery through the exclusion zone, increasing air pollution.

The condition of Chernobyl nuclear facilities  and other facilities was unchanged, it said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was following the situation in Ukraine “with grave concern” and was appealing for “maximum restraint to avoid any action that may put the country’s nuclear facilities at risk”.

Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the IAEA was closely monitoring developments in Ukraine with a special focus on the safety and security of its nuclear power plants and other nuclear-related facilities.

He stressed that the IAEA General Conference adopted a decision in 2009 that “any armed attack on and threat against nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes constitutes a violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter, international law and the Statute of the Agency”.

In a statement released on Friday 25 February the IAEA said it assesses that the readings in the Chernobyl area “reported by the regulator – of up to 9,46 microSieverts per hour – were low and remained within the operational range measured in the Exclusion Zone since it was established, and therefore do not pose any danger to the public”.

Source: WNN

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The Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520: Complementing Essential Existing Technology for Airtightness Testing in the Built Environment

A new British invention, following the co-location of Coltraco Ultrasonics’ Physicists and Scientists at Durham University, a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, the handheld Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 is a completely unique technology able to compute air flow and air permeability, quantifying leak sites to complement an airtightness test. Designed during COVID-19 with support from UK Government COVID-19 Emergency Technology Funding and available for exporting globally now, the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 builds on Coltraco’s long history in watertight integrity monitoring for the Royal Navy to deliver the Safeship™ at sea, applying our advanced understanding of fluid dynamics at sea to air flow dynamics to deliver the Safesite™ on land.

The unique ability to detect, locate and quantify air leaks, non-disruptively and without the need for any room pressurisation, in a complementary manner to existing Door Fan and Pulse Airtightness Testing, will enable users of the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 to make sharper decisions, verify technical specifications, and reveal possible defects if design standards have not been met rapidly and reliably.

The Importance of Building Ventilation: Changing Standards in the Built Environment
Professor Catherine Noakes OBE, who sits on the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) states that “if we do invest as a nation [in ventilation], there’s a potential big win,” with the “long-term payback [of] improved health and productivity, and lower energy use.”
COVID-19 is essentially an indoor air crisis. Whilst vaccinations are a crucially important tactical response, they must be complemented by longer term strategies. To ensure Human Air Hygiene, and safeguard that basic human right, a continuous and assured access to pure, fresh air, every public building must have a Ventilation Strategy.
In its most basic form, the challenge of building ventilation centres around increasing the number of air changes per hour. However, the integrity of air filtration, and or air purification, can only reasonably be assured if all unwanted air infiltration through gaps, is sealed. Air flow measurement devices, such as the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520, that allow for frequent and regular detection, location and quantification of unwanted air leaks must therefore be integrated alongside existing airtightness testing equipment, to ensure the success of building ventilation strategies.
In addition to Human Air Hygiene, Fire Suppression, Thermal Comfort, Acoustic Insulation, and Insect and Pest Control are all integral aspects of the Built Environment which require a certain level of airtightness to be maintained, either to deliver the minimum number of air changes per hour, restrict the supply of oxygen to extinguish a fire, or lower energy consumption and waste.
Indeed, in a post-COP26 global environment, addressing the effects of climate change and making buildings more energy efficient and environmentally responsible is driving the construction industry towards “Build Tight Ventilate Right.” Buildings are a significant producer of carbon emissions, accountable for 35% of total energy consumption.
Testing for air leaks and simultaneously testing for watertightness with the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520, as water ingress seriously damages buildings and destroys electrical equipment, will improve build qualities, and reduce the costs of operating and maintaining the Built Environment.

The Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520: Unique Technology to complement Existing Airtightness Testing
During Coltraco Ultrasonics’ long history in watertight integrity monitoring for the Royal Navy they learned that it was one thing to be able to identify large and microscopic leak sites, but that it was quite another to precisely locate and quantify the leak site through the structure concerned to determine the water flow rate. These are the crucial pieces of information required to assess the damage control risk overall in a ship’s watertight compartment, watertight door or watertight Multiple Cable Transit Area between bulkheads.
The Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 takes Coltraco Ultrasonics’ understanding of fluid dynamics at sea and applies it to air flow dynamics on land. They take the best ultrasonic technology in Coltraco’s hardware to identify leak sites with a microscopic level of accuracy and apply computer science to measure and quantify the leak-site by the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520’s algorithm, which also generates a value for the air flow rate through that leak and the building’s overall air permeability.
The ability to record and analyse these 4 factors makes the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520, a British lightweight, hand-held, and portable analytical instrument, a unique technology globally. The Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 has been invented to complement existing airtightness testing, typically achieved using a Door Fan Test or a Pulse Test, that is essential for measuring the integrity of the Built Environment.

Integrate Dynamically with Essential Existing Technologies to be Better-Faster-Cheaper: Testing the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 at The Airtightness Testing and Measurement Association’s (ATTMA’s) Building Performance Hub
In January 2022, Coltraco Ultrasonics’ Daniel Dobrowolski (Senior Physicist) and Bernard Hornung (Head of Built Environment) joined Paul Jennings (Airtightness Specialist) and Dr Bill Bordass OBE (Building Scientist) to test the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 in a full-sized house. Testing followed a Pulse Test and a Door Fan Blower Test, both of which the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 is designed to complement.

The Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 performed outstandingly, being able to identify and quantify leaks that had been found with traditional basic methods of leak detection such as thermal cameras, smoke pencils and anemometers, but most importantly finding leaks that could not be found with any alternative method. A significant number of leaks were identified in window and door seals.

The Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 allows the ultrasonic quantification of leak sites in a depressurised environment, which has never been achieved before. Door Fan Testing or Pulse Testing can then be conducted at an appropriate moment, once detected leakage points have been identified and repaired. Uniquely, during these tests, the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 allows the location and measurement of air leaks, facilitating remedial action that is precise, immediate, and often low-cost.

Furthermore, Buildings can be surveyed with a Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 before an air tightness test so that they have a better chance of passing and, if a building fails an airtightness test, the diagnosis as to why it has failed could include locating and quantifying air leaks with the Portascanner®.

These capabilities of the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 are even more important when one situates the device within the increased world-wide emphasis on airtightness in the built environment as a result of the dual pressures of COVID-19 and climate change. In the UK, higher standards on airtightness in the Built Environment are being encouraged by institutions such as the Passivhaus Trust, which forms a part of the global Passivhaus movement, and is the UK affiliate of the International Passive House Association.

Passivhaus builds are approximately ten times more airtight than the standard required of new-build domestic dwellings in the UK, meaning special attention must be paid to identify potential leakage areas in the building fabric and offsite-manufactured components during the final stages of construction. There are about 65,000 buildings worldwide which have achieved Passivhaus standards of comfort, health, and low energy consumption, with many more in the planning process.

Being able to use ultrasound to detect, locate, and quantify air leaks, eliminates the need for pressurisation, negative or positive. Therefore, the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 can test building components when they are manufactured, such as windows and doors, which is where most leaks manifest themselves, with the aim to eliminate leaks before installation. During the execution of a build programme, or in the case of offsite construction, during the assembly of building components, building control aimed at assuring a better build quality should include the frequent and periodic use of the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520.

Coltraco Ultrasonics’ technologies provide their users with the unprecedented visibility necessary to make sharp decisions and understand opaque issues. Integrating the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT 520 with essential existing Door Fan and Pulse airtightness testing will improve build quality, and reduce the costs of operating and maintaining the Built Environment, by improving Human Air Hygiene, Fire Suppression, Acoustic Insultation, Thermal Comfort, and decreasing water ingress and absenteeism.

www.coltraco.co.uk

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Omnie UFH Systems selected for Porthcawl church renaissance

A well-attended and progressive church at the heart of a Welsh town is nearing the end of the first phase of an ambitious refurbishment project intended to help it meet the needs of local families, across all age groups, with improved facilities and as part of the work, a new underfloor heating system featuring the use of two different OMNIE systems will provide a warming welcome for all.

Established nearly 150 years ago, Cilgal Baptist Church stands close to the centre of Porthcawl, a popular coastal destination, built in the traditional style from stone and slate, with a separate hall. Recognising however, that the spaces did not have the ideal layout or amenities, Gilgal’s administration began planning a three year programme of alterations to transform the main building – the Sanctuary – and then rebuild the adjoining hall. The changes within the Sanctuary include the creation of a function area with kitchen and new toilets, plus various adaptations for those with mobility issues. A modern main entrance will give access to an enlarged reception area, while a new steel mezzanine structure creates additional space for various activities. The work is being carried out by Cardiff based LCB Construction along with its group company, Tim O’Brien M&E installing the OMNIE Staple and TorFloor systems, along with a new 50kW gas boiler to improve the efficiency of the church’s heating and hot water delivery. Improved lighting and sound systems have also been included to make the interiors a better place for both worship and recreation.

 

Operations Manager for LCB Construction, Simon Baldwin, said: “The work involves removing cast iron pipework and radiators, which are being replaced with the Staples and TorFloor underfloor heating systems, while also fitting a new 50 kW gas boiler. Our group has employed OMNIE underfloor heating systems on a number of projects in the past including private schemes and in the case of a building like this, with considerable spaces to heat, they offered an ideal means of maintaining the design temperatures while avoiding taking up lots of wall area with traditional emitters.” A spokesperson for the Gilgal Baptist Church added: “The changes are intended to ensure our buildings are fit for purpose: to keep us abreast with modern worship trends, to serve our community better and to provide the type of flexible facilities that families will enjoy and benefit from a plan to make our church a place of glory to God.”

 

OMNIE’S Staples system, which has been used across a large proportion of the church and the adjoining function space as well as the office, is installed by clipping the continuous pipe runs to rigid insulation at 150mm spacings, itself secured across the concrete subfloor. The entire area is then screeded to make full contact with the pipework and achieve excellent levels of heat transmission to the occupied space, while OMNIE provides clients with a full table of heat outputs in Watts which will be delivered, depending on the choice of floor covering, including tiles, vinyl, timber and carpet with underlay. The specification switches to OMNIE’s versatile TorFloor system for areas like the kitchen, toilets and other parts of the church. Across all of the 10 zones which are fed from four multi-port manifolds measuring up to 920mm wide, the circuits are designed for a flow temperature of 55 C to give a return temperature of 48 C in order to maximise the performance of the condensing boiler.

The pipe spacing within the TorFloor panels is again 150mm, while the routed channels are covered by a temper aluminium foil diffuser layer to optimise output. Importantly, the TorFloor panels combine the ability to span upper storey joists or battens fitted across a ground level slab, to provide high efficiency underfloor heating and a structural deck in a single product. Thus saving both time and money on installation, while avoiding the need for separate particleboard or other flooring panels. This makes TorFloor an ideal solution for use in either new-build or refurbishment/retrofit situations, while the high output characteristics also means it suitable for connection to OMNIE’s air source or ground source heat pumps. There is also an acoustic version of TorFloor which has been developed to cut sound transmission between different floor levels, which is ideal for multi-storey residential conversions.

www.omnie.co.uk

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A. Proctor Group at St Dunstan’s College

The superior airtightness performance qualities of the Wraptite® air barrier system from the A. Proctor Group will enhance a new state-of-the-art development at St Dunstan’s College – a co-educational independent school in Catford, London.

Contractor Willmott Dixon will deliver the new Junior School, STEM building and Sixth Form Hub at St Dunstan’s.

Designed by Bond Bryan Architects, the new development will be sited adjacent to the existing historic Headmaster’s House and connected by a glass atrium. Phase one includes a new junior school with specialist facilities for art, music and performance, and phase two includes the construction of the STEM Centre and Sixth Form Hub.

A vital element of the design and construction is to maximise the energy efficiency of the new buildings: Wraptite airtightness membrane, the only self-adhering vapour permeable air barrier certified by the BBA, will form a crucial part of the solution.

The inclusion of Wraptite within the facade will ensure “as-designed” performance, narrowing the gap between as-designed and actual energy performance and reducing the likelihood of potential failures to meet required airtightness levels.

Wraptite is a self-adhesive breather membrane applied externally, quickly and efficiently as part of the rainscreen system. The self-adhesive Wraptite membrane fully bonds directly to the substrate, requiring no mechanical attachment and little seals or tapes to suppress air leakage around junctions or penetrations.

Wraptite combines the critical properties of vapour permeability and airtightness in one self-adhering membrane, providing high levels of protection to the building fabric beneath the cladding. As a result, the Wraptite system allows the substrate beneath to dry quickly and moisture vapour to escape and reduces the likelihood of mould, mildew, condensation, timber distortion and metal corrosion.

Wraptite is compliant with Part B regulation changes and also has BBA approval for unrestricted use in buildings over 18m in England and 11m in Scotland.

www.proctorgroup.com

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KEYSTONE LINTELS TURN ARCHITECTURAL VISION INTO REALITY AT POOLE HOMES

The thermal properties, structural performance and lifespan of Keystone’s standard lintels played a crucial role in the design of two bespoke modern homes in a prime coastal position in Dorset.

The neighbouring properties in the sought-after Lilliput area of Poole Harbour offer views over Parkstone Golf Club and have been designed to an exceptionally high standard. With double and triple-height ceiling voids, rooflights, high ceilings and over-sized doors, the five-bed homes have been designed by Trinity Architecture in collaboration with developer Towncourt Homes to offer residents a strong feeling of space and light. With the correct specification of lintels, a critical element of a project such as this, the design team turned to Keystone Lintels to meet their structural and thermal requirements.

Keystone provided comprehensive technical support and a fast turnaround to ensure the correct lintels were made available onsite via merchant Sydenhams. Manufactured from high quality grade pre-galvanised mild steel, Keystone’s single leaf BOX/K 100, BOX/K 75 and SK-90 lintels were specified in accommodating lengths and masonry loads to achieve the architectural vision.

 

 

The elevations of both properties are arranged to visually break up massing by the stepping up in scale from the left to the right when viewing the front elevations. The off-white render, TBS Portland Blue facing brickwork, timber horizontal boarding and aluminium power coated windows, roof and fascia helped to adjust the building mass and ensured the homes provided a positive contribution to the street scene.

Available in a variation of wall thicknesses and used for internal or external openings, Keystone’s steel lintels are specially designed with a steel plate on the underside of the lintel providing superior structural stability to avoid twisting of the lintel during installation. Keystone’s patented design enhances the structural performance of the lintel without compromising the thermal performance. The innovative thermal break plate features intermittent tabs that connect the outer leaf to the inner leaf resulting in a 90% reduction in thermal bridging. This simple yet brilliant innovation significantly reduces thermal bridging while adding vast improvements to the structural integrity of the lintel.

In an area of the Dorset coast synonymous with luxury homes, the twin homes in Liliput have made the mark architecturally with cost effective lintel solutions that meet the most complex structural requirements.

 

www.keystonelitels.com

 

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Kooltherm pipe insulation fitted on leading biomedical research building

The University of Warwick’s Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building (IBRB) is breaking new ground in building design. The £33m facility has been constructed with a cutting-edge offsite approach featuring Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation and Kooltherm Insulated Pipe Support Inserts.

The research building, designed by Hawkins/Brown and Fairhursts Design Group, will provide world-class facilities for over 300 biomedical researchers helping to deepen our understanding of the origins and mechanistic basis of diseases of the brain and body. Working closely with the project team, which included Willmott Dixon and Hoare Lea, NG Bailey has manufactured and assembled much of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing installations at its specialist offsite facility in Bradford. This specification included the installation of over 20,000 lm of Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation and Kooltherm Insulated Pipe Support Inserts, with onsite fitout carried out by specialist contractor Insulation & Cladding Services Ltd (ICS).

The University of Warwick set a target to complete at least 50% of the building work using offsite methods. NG Bailey helped to achieve this with a bespoke, five-storey ‘megariser’, which contains all of the buildings’ primary wet and dry services. The riser was delivered to site in eight sections, greatly reducing the number of deliveries and disruption to neighbours and allowing the installation to be completed in two days compared with the 15 weeks it would have taken with traditional methods. The sections were constructed horizontally at the NG Bailey facility and were lifted and installed using a crane – cutting time spent working at height.

As with all offsite work, careful pre-design was essential to ensure the ‘megariser’ and services were aligned correctly once in-situ. The project team collaborated closely with the use of BIM technologies and this process was supported through the specification of Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation and Kooltherm Insulated Pipe Support Inserts. These products are supported with bespoke BIM objects which can be freely downloaded from www.bimstore.co.uk This allowed service engineers and designers to accurately plan and position pipework and supports. With their leading thermal performance, the products also contributed to the project’s sustainability targets.

 

Stefan Watson, Offsite Integration Manager, Midlands, at NG Bailey explained: “By using offsite manufacture to produce the MEP elements, we removed circa 11,000 working hours from the project and reduced deliveries by around 190 HGV vehicles. The Client set the challenge of at least 50% of the construction being delivered through offsite techniques – and this was achieved.

“This greatly reduced the carbon footprint of the project and the completed building is expected to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. Building services play a significant part in reaching this target and we carefully developed a specification which will keep the building’s energy use to a minimum.”

Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation is one of the most thermally efficient pipe insulation materials in common use. This allowed the project team to effectively insulate the full range of pipe diameters on the project with a minimal thickness of insulation, supporting a faster, installation both in the factory and as part of the onsite work completed by ICS.
The project team also carefully addressed the risk of heat loss through pipe supports by installing Kingspan Kooltherm Insulated Pipe Support Inserts. The premium performance inserts effectively limit thermal bridging through the supports and form an effective vapour barrier. For larger diameter pipework, the inserts are supplied with a metal spreader plate which prevents insulation compression, ensuring the efficiency of the pipework is maintained over time.

The specification of the Kingspan Technical Insulation products also supported work to achieve credits within BREEAM assessment. An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certificate for Kingspan Kooltherm Pipe Insulation can be accessed at www.greenbooklive.com. The product is also certified as Eurofins Air Comfort Gold, recognising it as having low emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and both products are manufactured under an environmental management system which is certified to ISO 14001:2015.
With Kingspan Industrial Insulation’s free Pipeline Technical Advisory Service, which can be contacted on 0808 168 7363, clear advice and guidance can be accessed at every stage in a project.

www.kingspantechnicalinsulation.co.uk

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