Welding a staircase
Cassette floors: the
steel structure is
fabricated and then the
concrete poured in two
stages
To make the wall
panels, roll-formed
steel studs are laid up in
precision, laser cut jigs and
MIG brazed together
november 2007
accurate to within a millimetre,’ says Smithson.
‘Because the panels are that accurate, and because we
spend a lot of time making sure that the sole plate is
level, we can produce multi-rise buildings that can’t go
wrong in terms of accuracy,’ he says.
The Bath Row building, for example, was within
4mm of the vertical over 12 storeys. That would be
pretty in good in any industry but in construction it is
particularly impressive, says Smithson. ‘On a normal
steel framed or concrete building of this height, if you
are within 20mm you are doing well. You may be
looking at as much as plus or minus 10mm per floor.
That’s why we talk about precision in construction, we
are producing product that is exceptionally accurate.’
This is not just accuracy for its own sake though -
there is a real commercial benefit. ‘In terms of speed on
site, the accuracy built into the system means that you
don’t have to start levelling and shimming every floor
as you go up the building - which you do with other
systems. And you don’t have any rework problems from
the building not going up straight. It also cuts down
costs in terms of follow-on trades too. One of the big
issues when you are not working to that sort of accuracy
is that the external cladding is produced to a much
higher tolerance than the building. Curtain walling or
decorative cladding is likely to be made to a tolerance of
5mm. So if you are putting that on, for example, a
concrete-framed building, the cladders will start
claiming variation costs because they are having to pack
out the exterior of the building so that the cladding
looks straight. We are now working to tighter
tolerances than the cladding company - so if there is a
problem it is down to them - and the main contractor
and the developer are not seeing their costs increase.’
He says that the shortage of housing, and in
particular key worker housing, and the ever expanding
student population mean that there is a ready market in
the UK for Henley’s concept. ‘Over the past five years
there has been a concentration on Modern Methods of
Construction (an industry term for rapid-build prefabricated
technologies) and fast-track building
methods - predominantly for the housing sector and
also in terms of how the industry can deliver structures
quickly for the 2012 Olympics. There are a number of
techniques around, such as modular construction,
volumetric systems and timber framed buildings, but
these tend to come into their own on low-rise buildings
- up to say five or six storeys. Very few technologies
apart from ours can go above that and still maintain a
fast-track construction programme.
‘For those that can go higher, speed and accuracy
become problematical. For example, concrete panel
systems can go a lot higher, but you lose out in terms of
accuracy and terms of timescale. On any construction
project, time is money, particularly when you are
talking about an accommodation project. On a student
accommodation development, if you can shave the
project timetable down from two and half years to one
and a half years you get an extra year’s income. We have
also developed a unique rolled section, the Henley 3
section that has a curved profile in the shape of the
number three, which is twice as strong as the
equivalent square C sections that are normally used in
steel stud walls. This means we can put bigger loads
down through the stud - so wall panels are a lot
stronger and we can build them a lot higher.’
Going global
Because of the sheer weight of material involved in
constructing a building, and the close liaison required
between the manufacturer, contractor and developer,
this is one of the few sectors of British manufacturing
where there is no threat from low-cost economies.
Indeed, Henley is already looking at taking its product
worldwide.
‘We want to take one step at a time, and our primary
aim at the moment is to establish ourselves in the UK
and realise the potential of the business here. But we
have had a number of enquiries from abroad - notably
in China, where one of our owners has been on and off
for the last four or five months looking at licensing
agreements. We have also had approaches from places
including Croatia, Spain and Dubai. But while we are
investigating those opportunities we are concentrating
on the UK.
‘Our business model could be replicated in other
countries. We designed a purpose-made rolling
machine that we could lease to an overseas client and
we would supervise the technology - we would always
keep the intellectual property in the system. Our
mission as a company is to innovate through research
and development to become the world leader in new
building systems. And we do that through precision in
construction.’
www.henleysbs.com
first tier focus
MWP
87
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