The castings for this project had to go through rigorous scrutiny involving the fire engineering arm of WSP Global, the firm responsible for standards at the Bluewaters project. With the help of Regional Manager, Andy Holt, and Abhay Mamidwar, Infrastructure Specification Specialist of International Paint in Dubai, we helped to steer the contract to completion with a minimum of fuss. Abhay’s work in providing technical data was the key that kept our project live and made it a reality.
Interact’s epoxy casting was used for the fire protection of the tension rods on the visitor walkway leading up to the ferris wheel, being chosen for its sheer beauty of finish along with its high level of fire integrity, meeting BS476 for two hours.
The suspension rods appear behind a glass screen on the walkway to the entry point of the viewing pods on the ferris wheel. So while visitors are waiting to board the pods they, no doubt, will take great interest in the tension rods which stand in front the wheel itself, hence the requirement for an aesthetically appealing finish. The 90mm diameter rods allowed for greater visualisation of this huge structure.
Designers may start to feel apprehensive about specifying tension rods following the release of
BS EN 13381-10 (see article). True the testing regime is quite challenging. However, Interact Structural Fire Protection Limited will continue to support architectural design concepts no matter how challenging, to assist architects in producing their designs and turning them into reality.
