NEWS


Strengthening showering independence for users


Horne’s best-selling CARE shower panel, in use widely across the NHS estate, extra- care, and dementia care settings, now offers ‘enhanced inclusive design’, promoting further independence for its users. The company explained: “Completely redesigned, the integrated riser/grab bar now offers improved features for the user. The robust but lightweight bar, with anodised aluminium core, offers a solid grab point for unsteady users, and is available in standard white or luminous orange – to assist those with age or neurological disease-related sight impairments.” The design and operation of the riser carriage, which lifts or lowers the shower handset,


is ‘greatly improved’; a black spring lever releases the grip, and the user – including those with impaired hand mobility – can slide the holder effortlessly to their preferred showering height. The attached ‘Mech Extender’ enables wheelchair or shorter users to lower a high-set shower handset to a manageable level. Horne added: “The previous 2-3 useable rotational sprayhead positions are also vastly improved; head position is now infinitely variable, and easily adjusted with just a closed fist.


“Without the carriage mechanism, the bar can also be wall-mounted vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, for a lightweight, yet supportive, grab bar.”


‘Integration-friendly’ suppression system


Kentec has launched the Elite XT+, a new multi-addressable extinguishant control panel designed to be easily integrated as part of a wider fire safety solution. It features ‘intelligent functionality’ to simplify installation and use, and manages both alarms, and activation of gas suppression systems, via the same control panel. Achieved via a RS45 communication channel, this eliminates the need for a separate gas suppression detection system. Kevin Swann, Kentec’s MD, says ease of integration is ‘critical to the future of fire safety’: “We can now integrate multiple fire safety, security, and building


management systems with relative ease.” The panel’s multi-area releasing


control units contain one or two releasing modules via the master fire alarm panel. Each module can accommodate a separate hazard, defined by two specific zones. This means gas suppression need only be activated within the required area. Kentec’s configuration


software, Loop Explorer 2, ‘provides a simple programming interface’ to configure the inputs and outputs for each


releasing module. Other features include (for each area) first and second stage dual releasing outputs, NAC outputs, and volt-free changeover relays.


The perfect entrance for improved access at Pullman Place


Entrance solutions provider, dormkaba, has supplied products designed to improve accessibility – especially for visitors with mobility issues – and maintain aesthetics, for the entrance and waiting room area at Pullman Place, a mental health and learning disability clinic in central Gloucester, as part of the wider refurbishment of the former call centre. Quattro Design Architects was appointed to complete the four-storey building’s redesign and improve the front entrance lobby. The original lobby had hinged doors, and was not wide enough to incorporate automatic doors. The old


8


structure was almost entirely removed in favour of a more welcoming, accessible, and aesthetically pleasing design. Quattro specified dormakaba’s ST Flex Green Sliding Door – with its a slender profile design – for the main entrance.


It has interlocking side, top, and bottom seals to prevent heat escape, and meets legislative requirements for disabled access in the UK and Ireland. It was decided to split the reception into two distinct areas: one ‘a cosy, welcoming space’, and the second forming part of the larger atrium adjacent to the entrance and exit lobby. To achieve this, the architects specified dormakaba’s Charon HSD E03 Half-Height Swing Door, which provides quiet, noiseless operation, ensures barrier-free access for wheelchair users, offers low energy consumption, and has a servo drive that ‘allows for comfortable passage’.


OCTOBER 2019 | THE NETWORK


Stylish roofing for the Unity Centre


Sika-Trocal’s flexible, durable Type ‘S’ membrane has ‘provided the ideal waterproof solution’ for a large and complex roof installation at the Unity Centre, a new extension to Wakefield’s Fieldhead Hospital which incorporates facilities including a range of adult and elderly acute inpatient accommodation, a psychiatric intensive care unit, and a Section 136 area.


Completed in two phases, the extension was built to provide additional patient accommodation. The first phase, completed in July 2017, saw the installation of Sika-Trocal’s Type ‘S’ waterproof system across a 2,000 m2 area of roofing. The 2 mm-thick, mechanically fastened, single-ply membrane’s ‘renowned adaptability’ was ideal, as it had to cover a number of intricate roofing details.


FCB Roofing installed the slate grey Type ‘S’ membrane to 400 mm-thick tapered insulation. This accommodated the roof’s intricate multi-directional design and various falls. For the two- metre verticals and curved areas, Sika- Trocal parapet trim provided a crisp, uniform finish.


The prompt completion of the waterproofing aspect of the project’s first phase meant patients could occupy a good proportion of the new building without delay. Waterproofing work on the second phase began in September 2017. The new building’s entrance presented a different installation challenge, with its fan-style, five-tier roof. Again, the Type ‘S’ system’s malleability ‘proved crucial’.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36