CAB Technical Conference & Exhibition 2015 Highlights
May 2015

The aluminium in building industry assembled at Loughborough on 14 May 2015 for the sector’s technical event of the year, the Council for Aluminium in Building’s Technical Conference and Exhibition. Over 100 delegates were registered for the programme of 11 highly topical and thought provoking presentations alongside a table-top exhibition of 12 CAB member companies, all under the theme of “Fit for the Future”.

Peter Caplehorn, Policy Director and Deputy Chief Executive of the Construction Products Association provided the keynote address for the morning session with the title: “BIM, Now, Next and New”. Peter started by referring to the construction puzzle: how can everyone involved in a project best work collaboratively? He quickly identified BIM as the industry game changer that is gaining traction in the market now and set to challenge any remnants of the “silo” mentality. Drawing on the experiences of the automotive and aerospace manufacturers in particular, where they have fully embraced digital tools for design, manufacture and distribution, Peter asked why can we not do this for construction?

It may come as no surprise that the topic of BIM was touched on by several of the other speakers, with its potential to help manage health and safety, improve building performance and enable digital manufacture. BIM was the focus of the afternoon session, BIM4Fabricators, when Duncan Reed, Digital Construction Process Manager for Tekla, asked in relation to BIM: “What does this all mean for CAB members?” After trying to separate the hype and the myth from the reality of BIM, Duncan highlighted that BIM is really about people and process, with technology playing a supporting role. Duncan summarised how the “digital Plan of Works” will impact CAB members and particularly in relation to the stages definition, design, build and handover. At each of these stages, there will be demands for product-specific data, in the form of: data sheets and objects, including environmental performance.

Robert Berry, Director of Engineering and Innovation at Caunton Engineering then provided the perspective of a steelwork fabricator. 3D modelling has been standard practice in the company for over 25 years and is critical to them for all types of project, from small and simple to large and complex. Whereas it used to be only the drawing office that created models, in recent years where the models are created and, more importantly, where the models are used has changed radically, with people who lack the technical design skills but who know how things are built actively involved in the design process. The importance of data was again highlighted, with software now enabling data to be fed automatically throughout the business as well as to anyone else that needs it. Robert then compared manipulating drawings in 2D to the benefits in 3D and described how anyone involved in their project can view the model, and without necessarily buying expensive software. Complex joints or entire assemblies can be created as scale prototypes from the model using 3D printing. Robert asked: “If we get the design right, coordinate all the construction interfaces and then built it, is this really all that radical?” He highlighted a concern that in his experience while some models may appear to include curtain walling, when you look closely it can be just a representation and not the real thing. If the data are not complete in the model, it is not “production ready” and the project is missing out on the benefits of BIM. As Robert concluded, if you decide not to do BIM, opportunities for new work are likely to reduce.

Delegates were intrigued by Mauro Overend’s presentation, which summarised recent developments in glass and façade engineering research at the University of Cambridge, where Mauro leads the Glass and Façade Technology Research Group. Mauro explored recent trends to “dematerialise” by creating structures that appear to have no structure and to create facades with complex geometry. The pressure for energy efficiency was also discussed, with the pros and cons for self-adjusting and externally activated solutions. Market data indicate that the demand for curtain walling has shifted from stick to unitised systems because they rely less on skilled labour while providing consistent quality as well as the ability to incorporate advanced technology. When it comes to regulations and standards, however, Mauro questioned whether they needed to easier to navigate through, illustrated by reference to a drawing by Escher (he of the impossible structures)! Recent research projects have explored the potential for adhesively bonded metal-glass systems, highlighting the increased load bearing capacity compared with bolted systems. Mauro is also involved in the development of tools to optimise the design of facades, identifying that there can be over 1022 permutations of glazing, frame and shading (that’s a 1 followed by 22 zeros…which is the number of cells in 100 million adults…which probably doesn’t help in visualising this enormous number…). He explained how their optimisation tool attempts to simulate the complex reality and help in designing buildings with lower whole-life carbon emissions, taking into account the critical parameters including the size of glazing, its orientation and the local climate. The research group is now studying the optimisation of adaptive facades.