< PreviousFEATURE 10 BMTA The crucial role of BS 8414 testing in ensuring façade safety – a UKAS- accredited laboratory perspective By Mark Scott, Business Development Manager, Thomas Bell-Wright Ltd In construction and building safety, compliance with stringent standards is a cornerstone of responsible design and execution. One of the pivotal benchmarks in ensuring fire safety within the UK construction industry is BS 8414, a comprehensive testing method that evaluates the fire performance of external non load bearing cladding systems. This method involves subjecting a full-scale facade system to a simulated fire to assess the speed of fire propagation on the whole system. Passing BS 8414 and obtaining a classification as per BS 135 can greatly contribute to demonstrating compliance with Approved Document B, keeping in mind that additional factors may need to be addressed to fully meet all the requirements outlined in the document. The significance of conducting BS 8414 testing cannot be overstated, especially when executed by a UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) accredited laboratory. Accreditation by UKAS ensures that the laboratory has met rigorous international standards, demonstrating competence, impartiality and reliability in conducting tests. Through our UK-based company, Thomas Bell Wright Ltd, we provide BS8414 testing in addition to other Reaction to Fire Tests for building materials conducted at our Dubai location. Thomas Bell Wright International Consultants is a UKAS accredited fire testing lab, well respected in the industry for their excellence in testing and certification. We have more than 27 years’ experience in the industry. Thomas Bell Wright International Consultants now has a UK office which also has UKAS accreditation, allowing us to provide the best service possible to UK clients for their fire testing needs. To find out more about our UKAS-accredited lab and our scope of testing please contact Thomas Bell Wright via phone on 01869 629001 or email to mark.scott@bell-wright. com.FEATURE BMTA 11 MEMBER PROFILE Lynsey Poyner – UKAS Operations Director Lynsey Poyner joined UKAS as operations director last year. She reflects on her first six months in the role and considers the year ahead The autumn marked almost six months as operations director for me at UKAS. During this time, I have been delighted to find motivated and conscientious colleagues. The welcome has been warm, and it is with this goodwill I embark on the task ahead. Already it is clear and fascinating to me, that no two days are the same here at UKAS. One day a development call concerning how we monitor and measure time in the UK; the next, a scheme looking at DNA testing to prove the authenticity of manuka honey! The breadth of our activity never ceases to amaze me, and I feel incredibly lucky to be part of our journey. Growth opportunities The growth experienced by UKAS brings many opportunities in terms of our offerings and ability to support confidence in products and services we rely on, but it also brings challenges. In the Summer 2023 BMTA newsletter, our talent acquisition manager Nick Rushfirth detailed the recruitment challenges the TIC sector faces in terms of closing the skills gap in accreditation. During my early times of reflection, my thoughts are pushing me to support each industry to find creative ways to fill these gaps. Compared to this time last year, we have more than 27 extra employees on our books (an increase of over 11%). Inducting these colleagues in a structured, comprehensive way, so they feel empowered and confident to represent UKAS during their duties, whilst all of the time ensuring they feel like they belong at UKAS, is at the heart of what is extremely important to me. Collaboration and communication Another focus for me is the encouragement across our teams of excellent clear communication and a willingness to collaborate to solve problems and service our customers. Having spent almost 20 years in a large certification body, mostly in large operational delivery teams, my experience and indeed, my time with our field and office-based teams has allowed me to hear first-hand the challenges our customer service teams, customers, assessment managers and technical assessors face. Where practical, I will seek to work with the operations leadership team to make improvements and efficiencies. Delivering over 33,000 assessment days per year, it is essential that UKAS ensure the precious resources we have are utilised in the most efficient and effective way possible. My background in resource management, process efficiency and continuous improvement contribute to my early actions here. On a personal note, when I am not contributing to the world of accreditation, I love to cook, keep fit and get out and about in our camper van with the family. In my humble opinion, ensuring a balanced level of wellbeing when you have an incredibly busy professional life is key to achieving that magic ‘balance’ we all strive for. BMTA - the voice of measurement and testing We want you to make your views known in the standards making process and we actively encourage you to make your voice heard through your contribution to newsletters, participation in BMTA activities and membership of relevant BMTA and standards-making committees. Please visit our website to get involved or drop us a line to find out more. www.bmta.co.ukFEATURE 12 BMTA Developing the metrology underpinning innovation in biome bioplasticsFEATURE BMTA 13 NPL has developed the metrology required to understand the behaviour and performance of bioplastics to support Biome Bioplastics in their quality control and product development Biome Bioplastics is a UK plastics company, developing innovative bio-based compostable plastics for sustainable packaging and agricultural applications. The goal of the company is to produce bioplastics that can challenge and replace conventional fossil-based polymers but are completely compostable. This British technological development has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of plastics on the environment. The need Biome aimed to develop a new technology that enables the production of novel bioplastics with properties similar to those of conventional plastics but that are home compostable, allowing consumers to take ownership of their compostable waste. However, Biome needed to better understand the root cause of some disintegration behaviour in their new products. Their new bioplastic products have reported composting temperatures as low as 25°C, rather than the industry standard temperature of 50°C. The complexity of the composting environment means significant expertise is required to investigate the material properties and develop the metrology to understand the behaviour and performance of bioplastics. This could then be used as quality control processes and in further exploitation of product development. The solution With its world-leading expertise in surface technology and advanced engineering materials, NPL supported Biome through the Innovate UK Analysis for Innovators Programme by investigating the physical and chemical properties of their bioplastics. NPL applied thermal, morphological, topological, chemical and gas physisorption analysis capabilities in a novel and complementary way. Different forms of the polymers (sheets vs fibres), as well as the samples collected at various stages and conditions of the composability tests, were measured to understand the correlations between the materials’ properties and their disintegration performance. The resulting information enabled Biome to identify some key material characteristics, such as porosity and crystallinity, which are likely associated with the disintegration behaviour of end products. The impact Based on these findings, NPL and Biome developed rapid, cost- effective and quantitative methods which can potentially be used to monitor key process parameters to ensure product quality and reproducibility. The knowledge obtained from this work can be further exploited to broaden Biome’s product ranges, bringing high-volume, cost-effective biomaterials and bioplastics to market. Since disintegration tests are expensive and time- consuming, unlocking this knowledge could also lead to the development of new analytical tools which predict products’ end-of-life performance. NPL continued the collaboration with Biome to investigate the impact of the manufacturing process on products’ performance, which is of great importance to the sustainability of plastics in their life cycle. What the customer says Collaborating with NPL has been important in deepening our understanding of several of our products and uncovering the root causes behind their unique behaviours. Through a structured approach and rigorous analysis, NPL’s team demonstrated a high level of professionalism, consistently delivering high-quality data within agreed-upon deadlines. This timely access to a wide range of analyses complemented our in-house capabilities and played a pivotal role in supporting the development of Biome’s next generation of bio-based compostable products. We are excited about the ongoing partnership with the NPL team and look forward to delivering further technical milestones together. Paul Mines, CEO - Biome Bioplastics What the scientist says It has been an exciting collaboration. Understanding how fundamental material properties impact the life cycle of sustainable plastics is of great importance to the polymer manufacturing industry. It was great to see how surface chemical analysis, together with some advanced material characterisations, can answer some key questions in understanding the root course of the materials’ disintegration behaviour in complex composting environments such as our gardens. Dr Yiwen Pei, Senior Scientist - NPL14 BMTA → We help your business keep ahead of the game. We represent our members’ views to Government, UKAS and other official bodies, providing you with an edge over your competitors. →We represent you in the UK and Europe. Interests of standards and policy makers are represented to governmental organisations and standards organsations such as BSI and ISO. →We provide networking opportunities. Access to high-quality networking and knowledge-transfer opportunities through our high-profile membership base. →We keep you up to date. We send you regular updates, reports and guidelines. →We provide you with expert tuition on UKAS accreditations. 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