FEATURE INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS
Design innovation maximises floor- space at new warehouse facility
H
ome security specialist, ERA, has been manufacturing in the West
Midlands for over 175 years and has recently moved from its longstanding Willenhall site to a new, purpose-built manufacturing, warehousing and office facility in nearby Wolverhampton. Developed by occupier-led property
specialist, Stoford, and built by A&H Construction, the new multi-million pound ERA Home Security headquarters has been designed to enable the company to drive new innovation, expand and diversify. The company has embraced new technology, developing market-leading products that include its HomeGuard Pro Smart Home Alarm System and Wireless Video Door Intercom system, along with its soon-to-be launched TouchKey keyless smart lock. As a result, ERA’s new facility needed to
provide an advanced production environment with a focus on clean manufacturing, lean management workflows and hi-tech equipment. To achieve this, the bespoke facility needed a complex electrical and data installation requiring more than 1,000 metres of Unitrunk Cable ladder and EasyConnect cable basket for the manufacturing and stock holding areas, along with Unitrunk’s UniKlip cable tray for the office areas.
HIGH LEVEL The 135,000sq ft ERA unit includes both warehousing and manufacturing in the main building with office suites at the front of the building and an upper floor plant room. The building is located on the i54 Business Park, so power for the new build unit was supplied via an underground connection to the existing HV substation. The main building reaches 16 metres
high at its apex and electrical contractor, CKW Contracts, created a framework of heavy duty 600, 450 and 300mm Unitrunk ladder, using risers to take cables up to high level from the floor- mounted LV switch panel and installing 10mm rod to fix the ladder to the building’s purlins. The high level cable ladder also provided a support structure for the EasyConnect basket. Explains Jack Pullar from CKW: “The heavy duty ladder provided a robust framework at high level in the building so that we were not only able to use it as the fixing framework for the cable basket at high level, but also to offer a solution for all the cable management requirements of the production area too.”
SUSPENDED SUB-FRAME One of the key challenges of the installation was the need to provide an electrical network for the production area, as there was substantial need for electrical services and power outlets here. However, ERA wanted to maximise the available floorspace to enable flexibility of layout and efficiency of workflows. Ian Turner, warehouse and delivery
manager at ERA, says: “The original mechanical and electrical design involved floor-mounted steel supports for the cable management installation in the production area, but this would have limited the location options for machinery and given us reduced future flexibility for the space. We challenged CKW to come up with an alternative approach and were impressed with the way they worked with Unitrunk to re-engineer the cable management installation.”
30 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT
ERA has recently opened a new, purpose-built manufacturing,
warehousing and office facility; Unitrunk was required to help with the complex electrical and data installation
Unitrunk and CKW developed an alternative strategy with a suspended sub-frame of cable ladder under the main, high level installation. The resulting sub-frame covers an area totalling approximately one third of the main building floorplate and hangs from the main cable ladder frame at around 2.5 metres above finished factory floor level. Two vertical lengths of cable ladder were used to provide anchor points between the main frame and the sub- frame, creating a sturdy installation, while suspension wires and gripple hooks were used to create a lightweight, lower cost solution for the remainder. This sub-frame not only provides the infrastructure for 250 amp bulbar and 500 power outlets for the production area but will also be used to suspend compressed air pipework locally to the production processes. Just like the high level frame, the sub
frame also provides the fixing structure for the EasyConnect cable basket, which provides the comms cabling infrastructure for the production area and feeds into four comms cabinets suspended five metres above the factory floor. Pullar adds: “We have used Unitrunk’s
Left: Contractors from CKW Contracts helped with the installation of a Unitrunk ladder framework
Rapid Installation Systems (RIS) cable management products on numerous schemes and the speed and ease of use, along with Unitrunk’s design input, really helped us deliver the project on time.”
Unitrunk
www.unitrunk.co.uk
/ FACTORYEQUIPMENT
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