Construction goes with the flow

In a Q&A session, Richard Brine, manager of Lionweld Kennedy’s GRP business unit examines the increasing adoption of glass reinforced plastic within the construction industry.

As a leading manufacturer of industrial GRP grating, handrails and stair treads, Lionweld Kennedy’s products - which include its Flowgrip flooring, and Flowgrate and Flowtread gratings - enables the supply of complete access solutions to businesses around the world.

Q) What types of construction-related trends/demands are placed on your company by customers?

The necessity to provide highly technical engineering responses that satisfies the customer has always been the case. Nowadays, this expectation appears even greater, partly due to the change in style of the engineering client. Other than price, quality and delivery demands, expectations include knowing what is asked for in the design, build strategy, site methodology, evidence of compatible build in 3D model prior to commencement, significant supporting paperwork demonstrating product suitability, operation and maintenance requirements and ultimately trust built up in being a market leading reputable supplier for your specialist subcontract. Along with relationships, flexibility, case studies, improved marketing of what you actually do - not what is perceived (and there is always a wider gap than you think) - and constant product development, allows some ability to manage your market position. However, competitors are doing exactly the same.

Q) What are today's customers looking for in terms of performance solutions?

It’s a given that customers are looking for more support in technical and engineering solutions than ever, but ultimately, they’re looking to satisfy their clients in the most effective way possible. With GRP being a relatively immature product for construction applications, that lacks a large amount of market knowledge, this means there are even more phases of design, review, redesign and barriers to acceptance as it’s not a ‘traditional’ product used in the industry. Therefore, even more time is necessary to provide the trust of product suitability and subcontractor capability in fulfilling the project requirement. ‘Lunch and learn’ (or CPD) sessions with main design houses and contractors goes down very well in bridging the additional support gap inevitably for a product still to be fully-embedded in supply chain norms.

Q) From what areas of the construction industry are you seeing the most interest in GRP solutions?

The majority of interest comes from Risers in tall multi-story buildings, which have replaced traditional steel gratings, increasing use in the rail and infrastructure sectors, especially where non-conductivity and lightweighting provide a USP or are becoming the norm for the task in hand. In addition, renewables and the oil & gas sector have a proportion of GRP business due to lightweighting, low corrosion and low maintenance. Where the product is known by designers and consulting engineers, it has been supplied into floodlights, high-rise access walkways and sports stadia disabled access add-ons, as well as perimeter fencing where barriers to the pitch are required among others.

Q) What kinds of technology barriers do you need to overcome in order to get your product to market?

The technological barriers to mainstream adoption are about the whole supply chain being aware of the product, its abilities and constraints. It has many benefits with some disadvantages and these need to be educated into the supply chain as another option to consider over more traditional methods. This is why ‘lunch and learn’ sessions are important to understand where GRP has been used successfully and how it might benefit a project in complementing steel or other materials. The drivers for use are easily understood and with awareness can grow the opportunities of supply in the future.

Q) How much does aesthetics come into providing product solutions?

Traditionally, galvanised steel work is either grey or painted to suit the end use requirement. GRP generally comes in yellow, green or grey, or can be manufactured in any RAL colour to suit specific projects on longer manufacturing lead-times. Finishes, such as gritted or concave (meniscus) non-slip, appeals in areas of heavy traffic, such as transport hubs. Branding has minimal effect at the commodity level, though this tends to change significantly as the GRP structures become more engineering solutions based on the confidence of engineering supply.

Q) What types of fasteners are required to assemble an access gantry for example, or is everything glued together?

Various GRP suppliers have different methodologies for supplying their GRP structures. Wherever possible, we tend to use fixtures and fittings that would traditionally be used in similar steel applications. More often for GRP, standard stainless steel and/or galvanised fixings can be accommodated and most suppliers of GRP will supply the range of fixings required for their range. These would be what most clients would already be working with. Regarding gluing or bonding, we don’t tend to be involved at all, as riveting is our preferred method. Some suppliers may be much more heavily involved in bonding, and this is down to each supplier to satisfy their client expectations with the variability of products available.

Q) What kind of lifespan do GRP constructions have and what are the end-of-life plans in terms of recycling, if any?

GRP constructions can provide lifespans and warranties at least equal to most substitute materials if not longer, and are especially competitive when taking whole-life costs, such as regular maintenance, site visits and asset management requirements into account. Lifespans of up to 60 years aren’t uncommon requests for GRP solutions. For recycling, the industry is looking at energy from waste solutions, such as a plant built in Germany, whereby the product would be recycled. In addition, Best use of automated nesting reduces waste and the remaining product can be often used for treads, sand ladders and 4x4 track support methods kept in the boot of a car due to its lightweight handling ability. Rather than skip our offcuts, we sell a sizeable proportion on for a nominal value to others who use them for a variety of uses.

Q) What differentiates your company from the competition?

Lionweld Kennedy is the only UK manufacturer of open steel gratings and holds one of the largest GRP flooring and handrail stocks in the UK. People contact us because not only are we a leading, trusted company - especially on more complex projects - but our service to customers provides a best practice technical and engineering offering, supported by BIM level 2 compliance including the use of 3D design modelling software, the ability to provide calculation sheets and other supporting technical documentation for GRP as we would be expected to for steel projects. We supply GRP, just as we would steel, to the same governance, compliance and regulatory frameworks necessary and as demanded of a subsidiary business of a FTSE250 company.

Q) What developments will we be seeing in the construction sector in the future?

Developments are likely to provide both risks and opportunities to companies such as ours. Recent events have provided the need to ensure everything is supplied fully-compliant to all engineering and technical requirements, and any doubts must be removed prior to project or phase commencement. We see a more rigorous and robust supply chain perhaps linked to more onerous legislation as a positive in removing poor product, practice and performance, and assisting companies like ours that always work towards meeting or exceeding current legislation, design codes and other minimum standards as a given. That said, smarter working methods, flexible working, lightweighting, CSR and sustainability impacts along with speed of response, methodology and value for money will all play an increasing factor in future decision-making in the medium-term.

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