56 PRODUCT SECTION
PRE-PREPARED TO ADDRESS THE HOUSING CRISIS
Robert Clark of Fusion Building Systems explains the benefits of offsite manufacturing, explaining how time-saving but high-performance SIPs could help ease the UK’s housing shortage
T
he UK is suffering from a lack of housing, with even the Government citing a ‘broken
housing market’ in its heavily anticipated White Paper last month. Encouragingly however, the Paper assured a commitment to supporting the development of ‘modern methods of construction.’ Volume housebuilders are now beginning to incorporate offsite into their future plans, many seeing it as a step change in their whole supply chain process. Of course, there’s nothing new about
offsite manufacturing (OSM), and for that matter, structural insulated panels (SIPs). Development of SIPs systems dates back to the 1940s, although the industry didn’t really gain momentum until the 1970s. The products available now however can deliver a U-value of 0.2 W/m2
Building Regulations) or with further insula- tion installed during construction on site, up to 0.12 W/m2
K or 0.15 W/m2 K. Achieving
such performance of course depends on the choice of product and the building fabric.
THE OPTIONS Essentially, there are two options for OSM: panelised, with a choice of light gauge steel (LGS) or timber; and volumetric, or modular as the Government is terming it. Depending on which you choose, the insulation levels can vary enormously.
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Some timber frame structures will be pre-insulated, others will be open, and for LGS, some will be loose-filled, while some specialised systems even offer fully wrapped panels.
If you opt for an LGS frame, then ensur-
ing it’s fully wrapped is pretty important if you’re to avoid issues with cold bridging in achieving the required U-values. You can of course insulate the cavity on site using bead, wool or slab, but if the steel’s been fully wrapped offsite in the first place, this problem is eliminated.
K (which alone surpasses
THE COST- AND TIME- SAVING BENEFITS OF THIS APPROACH ARE CLEAR IN THE HOUSING CRISIS, AS IS THE REDUCED RELIANCE ON SKILLED LABOUR
SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION Addressing insulation is only scratching the surface of what should be included in the OSM process. It all comes down to early supply chain integration. The specification
and positioning of doors and windows, the routing of M&E services, H&V systems and communications connections all need to be agreed early on. Even the positioning of brick ties or clad anchorage points must be agreed on. These should all be worked into the building’s design and form part of the manufacturing process of the individual cassettes or panels for the building. Once on site, the (pre-insulated) frames can be erected in a matter of days and all other elements slotted seamlessly into their allotted positions. The cost and time saving benefits of this approach are clear, as is the reduced reliance on skilled site labour – another issue affecting the UK’s housing crisis.
CASE STUDY
Putting this into practice, Fusion started working with Barratt Developments in 2015 as it began its evaluation for offsite supply chain partners. As part of this process, a trial project was run for the design, specification, manufacture and erection of nine residential properties at its Swanbourne Park development in Angmering, West Sussex.
The company successfully completed the project using a framework which had been manufactured using its patented technology. The trial required the integration of teams at all levels from both
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