Lynn Davies supports Eurobonds pledge for Safer Schools

I am delighted at the Government’s recent announcement to increase the continuing investment within UK schools and educational buildings. Having spent the majority of my working life involved in education and sport I realise the substantial impact such a scheme can have on the community and the education of our future generations.

It has become increasingly important to maintain and renew the buildings and infrastructure of schools throughout the UK; children respond well to an attractive, safe learning environment built around their needs. Many educational buildings once considered state of the art throughout the 1960s and 1970s are now in urgent need of repair, unable to comply with stringent UK standards.

Unfortunately recent figures released by the Arson Prevention Bureau have shown a dramatic rise in the number of UK schools encountering arson attacks; for many the damage has been devastating, causing vast disruption to students, teachers and local communities. The increase has identified the need for prevention methods to be factored into building design. As such a number of design guides have been published to enhance property protection and life safety.

Continuous development within product manufacturer and construction regulations ensures that educational builds throughout the UK are designed and built in accordance with these new guidelines. Building Bulleting 100 and Zurich Municipal guides are two of the most influential publications to incorporate design guidance on fire safety with schools. Eurobond Laminates, a South Wales manufacturer produces a range of non combustible stone wool core composite panels that comply with such guidelines.

I am particularly passionate about Eurobond Laminates due to the array of benefits their panel systems offer, aside from the reduction in installation time and secondary steel work; the panel systems also offer an aesthetically pleasing, architecturally flat finish thanks to their stone wool core. The core provides a fire rated solution that bares little impact on the environment and superb acoustic and thermal performance, a distinct consideration in school building design.

The overall success of this Government scheme will depend on harnessing the capacity of major suppliers such as Eurobond, the Prime Ministers acknowledgement of their success and committed to fire protection in major public buildings is recognition of their 25 years of experience with the construction industry and appreciation of the valuable contribution their systems have within schools environments.

CPD on Tour

The migration of composite panels from the cold store industry into densely populated public buildings such as schools and hospitals has brought about the substantial need to educate the construction industry on their correct design and manufacture.

Our CPD’s provide a valuable and impartial insight into the fire performance and sustainable credentials of composite panels when installed correctly. This year we plan to bring our expertises and knowledge to the masses, detailing not only the manufacture and design of composite panel systems, but highlighting the legislation and industry regulations inline with the construction industries requirements.

In an effort to make our CPD programme more accessible we have partnered with a number of influential CPD service provides to deliver our CPD’s throughout the UK over the course of 2009.

A number of dates have already been booked and spaces are limited, add them to your calendar now to avoid disappointment.

The CPD Certification Service

 October 7th – Fire Performance of Composite Panels – Stage Hotel, Leicester

 October 22nd – Sustainable Panel Design – Crown Plaza Hotel, Chester

Direct Contact Exhibitions

 September 24th – Sustainable Panel Design – David Lloyds, Cardiff

RIBA Roadshow

 November 12th – RIBA Headquarters, London

Going to Great Lengths

Eurobond, in partnership with Kera UK Ltd has successfully developed vacuum lifting equipment capable of installing panels up to 17m in length and 600kg in weight.

Presently, UK industry standard vacuum lifting equipment only has the capacity to lift panels under 400kg. The new vacuum brief was driven by Eurobond's desire to expand services offered and accommodate the ever growing demands on panel size (and subsequently weight). The scope of the project was to develop a bespoke piece of equipment capable of increasing by 50% the lifting capacity of readily available machinery without compromising safety of the structural integrity of the panel system.

Further investigation and experimentation centred on the manufacture of 15m panels here at Eurobond. No panel of this length had ever been produced and consequently handled. Consideration was given to the manufacture, packaging, wrapping, and lifting from the line. Storage and handling onto transport was also a consideration. Further to this, the standard lorry bed length is circa 12.6m so additional transport knowledge was required to overcome this aspect of the project.

Innovation is at the forefront of this development. Considerable research and development work was undertaken to produce a dual pump system capable of lifting a 600kg panel (each element of the dual system had to have the capacity to lift 600kg). This was necessary to ensure that should one element of the equipment fail, there would still be one half that would continue to support and hold a 600kg panel. Further work was undertaken to develop a structural steel frame to carry the vacuum lifting equipment and to cope with the considerable strain it would be put under.

Before any full scale trials could be conducted, initial development proposals were drawn up. Calculations were performed before full scale trials could be arranged to prove the feasibility of the approach. Final designs were approved and a project plan was then put in place to manufacture, test, accredit and trial the equipment.

Full scale trials were designed and scheduled in order to determine whether a 15m panel would be structurally strong enough for lifting by vacuum equipment across a 6m spread. This had never been done with a stone wool composite panel before, so the approach was ground breaking and pioneering in the extreme.

The trial programme set out to prove that panels could be handled, manoeuvred and installed in a variety of scenarios.

i) lifted vertically via a telehandler from the floor

ii) lifted vertically via a telehandler from a lorry bed

iii) lifted vertically via a crane from the floor

iv) lifted vertically via a crane from a lorry bed

As part of this process, handling and moving of panels in a stack, that is panels stacked after production for transportation, had to be established as Eurobond had never manufactured panels of this length before. It was determined that extended forks would be needed for the equipment already onsite. This proved viable and successful.

All four scenarios were trialed with success. A change in approach was necessary when handling panels via a crane (different lifting points and therefore stress upon the panel when lifted). Despite two broken/damaged panels, this problem was overcome on site with the aid of contractors Boss Design and led to the successful installation of 15m panels at a real site in Cardiff the new Glamorgan Records Office.

For more information on Glamorgan Record Office please click here

Eurobond going for GOLD!

Simon Thomas our MD recently met up with Sebastian Coe to discuss the sustainable commitments for 2012, here he provides us with an insight into the planned developments.

We were recently invited to the ODA Headquarters for a private meeting with Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

Myself, Phil Cook (Managing Director Euroclad) and our corporate ambassador, Olympian Lynn Davies were privileged enough to be taken on a guided tour of the Olympic Park site, giving Lynn and Seb time to discuss years gone by and dispute which of them was the greater Olympian.

During our visit Sebastian Coe outlined the ODA’s plan for the 2012 Olympic Games, detailing the milestones that would provide the foundations for the delivery of new venues and infrastructure for the Olympic and Para Olympic Games and importantly the legacy beyond.

The delivery of these milestones on time and within budget is underpinned by five priority themes; Health & Safety, Sustainability, Design & Accessibility, Equality and Diversity & Legacy.

The proposed site will include an 80,000 capacity stadium, Olympic Village providing accommodation for thousands of athletes, shops, and restaurants along with medical and leisure facilities. The site is also scheduled to include a VeloPark, Aquatics Centre, Handball and Basketball arena, along with a Hockey centre and Eton Manor.

Visualising the venue in 2012 with the design features and site accessibility it is easy to see that London will provide a great spectacle and undoubtedly make us a proud nation.

Placing sustainability at the heart of the 2012 Games has enabled the 2012 Olympics to become a platform to highlight Global environmental issues and climate change.

London 2012 and London 2012 stakeholders share a commitment to maximise sustainability through every phase, starting with building the venues and infrastructure, staging the Games themselves and post Olympics. The materials used in the construction of the Olympic Park and venues are a key aspect of their commitment to delivering sustainable developments.

Here at Eurobond we manufacture a wide range of roof and wall cladding systems that offer low environmental impact helping to support the 2012 vision.

Our wall systems are manufactured using materials with a high recycled content, reducing the need for scarce raw virgin materials. Our steel has a recycled content of over 70% and the stone wool core can be up to 100% recycled material, supporting the ODA’s aim to ensure that at least 20 %, by value, of construction materials will be from a reused or recycled source.

With Eurobond Products, all manufacturing waste, site waste and demolition waste at the end of a building’s life can be recycled into new products. Steel can be separated and used to make new products with the stone wool core recycled back into the Rockwool plant for reuse. The technology and infrastructure to deliver this "Cradle to Cradle" approach is active now, unlike the alternatives offered by PIR panel manufactures.

Both Euroclad and Eurobond manufacturing facilities are close to our steel and stone wool suppliers in South Wales minimising embodied energy impact. Material can be delivered to London by rail to support the ODA’s climate change target of 50% transport by rail or water. The low carbon impact of Eurobond and Euroclad systems is demonstrated by independent Environmental product Declarations and listing in the BRE Green Guide.

Health of the construction workforce and future building occupants is important to the ODA and it prohibits the use of harmful substances such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The stone wool insulation used in all Eurobond and Euroclad products does not contain any VOCs. This is in contrast to wall and roof systems using foam plastic insulation which often incorporate the chemical blowing agent Pentane in their production, a classified VOC.

The lengths Sebastian Coe and his team are going to to ensure the sustainability of the Games is fantastic and hopefully these measures will encourage others to take the same considerations into account.