News

Effective from 1st January 2009 Halfen have appointed Steve Gent as their
new Sales & Marketing Director.

Bringing with him 14 years experience with a manufacturer in the
construction industry Steve says - "I am extremely pleased to be on board
and look forward to driving the Halfen brand values and leveraging our
technical competence to help grow the business and take us to the next
level.

The landmark Manchester Civil Justice Centre features a spectacular 63m x 60m cavity glass wall secured to the structure's thin metal decks by specially designed and fabricated Halfen 'Ski' cast-in channel assemblies.

The glass wall forms part of a feature area of double-skin cladding - the inner leaf being unitised system cladding - with a walkway installed between the two. The inner skin is secured at every floor level whilst the outer skin and walkway are suspended from hangers at every other floor level. This plus the cantilever effect of the walkway creates very high loads, catering for which was further complicated by the floor slab thickness of only 150mm.

After close collaboration between Halfen, the curtain walling contractors, Joseph Gartner & Co Ltd, and the structural engineers, Connell Mott MacDonald, Halfen 'Ski' assemblies were selected to provide fixings. The assemblies are made up from pairs of 350mm long sections of channel - in this case HTA 52/34 hot rolled channel - joined by light weight spreader straps.,

"We required bespoke fittings as well as standard products all in stainless steel and only Halfen came up with an acceptable proposal," says Enrique Flores, Balfour Beatty's Construction Manager at the Liverpool Canal Link Scheme.
The £20 million project will extend the Leeds & Liverpool Canal down to the South Docks, providing a further 1.4 miles of navigable waterway. The proposed route will involve various structures including two new locks, open channels, tunnels and culverts.

Halfen cast-in channel and fixings are being used to secure granite cladding to the open channels and culverts. Balfour Beatty's contract also includes the creation of a Public Realm complete with granite-clad seating and a high profile architectural feature. The bespoke items for this section comprised two types of stone support cleats consisting of cold-formed angle with loose dowels and fixings.

All channel and fixings are being supplied in grade A4/316 stainless steel to provide corrosion resistance against the aggressive salty air.,

A remarkable revolving, tilting façade feature posed a different sort of problem to the Halfen team - how to fix cladding with changing load values, occurring in different directions, hundreds of times a day?

As part of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 celebrations, artist Richard Wilson (in conjunction with Price & Myers Consulting Engineers) wanted to create a revolving oval in the facade of the disused, multi-storey building. Lindhurst Engineering Ltd, sub-contractor to Askam Construction Ltd, consulted Halfen who proposed the solution to the fixing problem.

The stone cladding was removed and a hole was cut. A steel oval frame incorporating horizontal bands of Halfen channel was set in place and the exterior spaces were plated in. The cladding was attached to the frame by means of Halfen clips, resin-anchored into the stonework.

The oval is attached to a 610 mm diameter spindle, driven by two large synchronised motors and rotates on a slewing ring at 40 degrees relative to the building front face, so that it tilts as it turns.

The façade feature is on an unoccupied building, which is due to be demolished at the end of the year. The artist’s objective was to take a building that nobody noticed and turn it into a building that everybody looks at, giving it a new lease of life.

Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=runwpm7CnYM to see for yourself.

Halfen, manufacturers of market leading precast lifting systems, has published a 'Safety and Best Practice' guide to precast concrete lifting. With over 35 million tonnes of precast concrete products being produced in the UK every year, the guide acknowledges the excellent safety record in the use of precast lifting components. However, it also points out that component parts and precasting processes of the highest standards are required to continue this trend.

To this end, the guide lists the areas of concern for manufacturers of lifting components, the precasters that use them and those responsible for transportation, storage and handling. It underlines the need for the quality of raw materials and components to be verified by testing; for component selection to be allied to correct design, specification and casting techniques; and for the correct storage and lifting techniques to be combined with the appropriate machinery for the job with clear communication between operators and ground crews.

The guide also details Halfen's support services for specification and use of precast concrete lifting systems.