An award-winning Cornish start-up has partnered with Birmingham based Richter Associates to promote and grow an innovative new product called ScaffFloat.
The Cornish company, ScaffFloat, have designed and filed a patent for a clever, but incredibly simple system that combines their tough plastic floats with standard scaffolding parts to make pontoons and other floating structures.
Richter Associates, and their sister company 48.3 Scaffolding Design, have six UK and one overseas office and specialise in providing design engineering services to the temporary works and scaffolding industry.
Roger Tice, Managing Director of Richter Associates, said “When I first saw the idea, I had one of those ‘why has no one thought of this before?’ moments. We got our team together and asked to see a demonstration of the system – the floats are incredibly tough, and the system for securing them in the scaffold structure is simple and robust, ideal for our industry. We can see all sorts of exciting applications for this within the industry we serve, and in most cases, there are very significant cost savings to be had. We are already speaking to a number of our clients about the system and how we can now offer the design services for floating structures.”
The ScaffFloat team have been testing the system in the field over the last few months and now their initial R&D work has been completed, they are starting to introduce the product to the market, take bookings and actively look for UK scaffolding companies that are keen to offer floating access solutions to their customers.
Toby Budd, Founder and MD said “We are already speaking to a number of scaffolding companies who are interested in becoming Approved Installers. After a signed agreement has been put in place and we have provided the necessary training, they can hire floats from us and use them to start building pontoons for their customers. The interest has been much stronger than we expected.”
He added, “We appreciate that most scaffolders are not familiar with floating structures, so, as well as hiring them the floats, we and Richter Associates can provide a comprehensive design service. All our pontoon designs come with full structural, buoyancy and stability calculations and we are happy to produce renders and drawings FOC to help our partners bid for and win tenders, we are also always on the end of the phone to offer advice. Category 3 checks can also be provided for larger projects.”
The company says that safety is key, so to help make sure all ScaffFloat pontoons and structures are professionally built to an approved set of drawings, they are currently only hiring their floats. Float hire prices start at £1.90 per day on long-term hire or £3.90 per day on short-term hire.
The floats are designed to integrate with popular 450 & 750 lattice beams, and then use standard tube lengths, forged double couplers and scaffold boards. The smallest pontoons start at 4m x 4m and can scale to almost any size.
Uses for ScaffFloat span several sectors including survey, drilling, geotechnical, renewables, oil & gas, civils, events, disaster relief and access. As well as standard flat top pontoons the company is currently testing a range of ‘bolt-on’ modules that include spud legs, propulsion, welfare huts, lifting A-frames, deck cranes and loading ramps.
Particular interest has also been shown for bridge projects, where pre-built structures can either be floated underneath and lifted into place, or a ScaffFloat pontoon can be lifted up under the bridge to provide access for repair works, or for scaffolders to install scaffolding.
For more information, or to register your interest as an Approved Delivery Partner visit www.ScaffFloat.co.uk
