September 2015 – SpecNews

APK: High quality PE recompounds launched / Rising demand from construction sector / Newcycling project in development

High quality PE recompounds launched / Rising demand from construction sector / Newcycling project in development
German recycling specialist(APK, Merseburg; www.apk-ag.de ) has developed technology for producing high quality recycled regranulates from post-consumer film scrap.
APK, using its proprietary technologies, has built a large-scale pilot plant financed by German venture capital firmsand
They emerge from APKs elaborate cleaning, separation and recycling process as Mersalen LDPE recompounds and MDPE recompounds in pellet form., manager of APKs southwest sales office, said: Our Mersalen MDPE recompounds, which are designed for demanding processing technologies and applications, are meeting growing demand from the building industry and other sectors.
The scrap, called fraction 310, comprises pieces of PE and PP film.
As a result, said APK, the MDPE recompounds are particularly clean, contain little or no moisture and have undergone minimal thermal damage.A project to separate and recycle plastic waste from the packaging and automotive industries into raw materials with properties identical to virgin material (newcycling) is also underway.

GRAPHISOFT adds Generative Design with Rhino-Grasshopper Connection > ENGINEERING.com

The Rhino-Grasshopper-ARCHICAD alliance lets architects and designers use Grasshopper’s algorithmic design tool with ARCHICAD BIM software using a unique iterative design workflow.
With this, GRAPHISOFT hopes to make BIM a more versatile design tool for architects.
By using the connection, BIM can be used before building elements are differentiated.
This design workflow stands out in its ability to help the user easily explore a large number of design variations.
The new tool integrates the traditional design process with a computational design approach.

Top five things to see this week: The Goods Line, Arj Barker and Montaigne

In this stage show, Harbridge pays homage to the girl who inspired La Traviata, The Lady of the Camellias and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.
Her moniker was inspired by the 16th century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, pioneer of the modern essay.
Warmer ocean conditions mean jellyfish are able to thrive better than ever before, with overfishing wiping out competitors.
Indie pop singer Montaigne, also known as Jessica Cerro, begins her national tour in Perth, following the release of her single Clip my Wings.
By spending more time in Australia than his country of birth, he’s able to present some pointed insights on what Aussies are like – jokes that he says homegrown comics wouldn’t be able to get away with.

AYS Ventures forms JV to cash in on Tokyo Olympics

PETALING JAYA: AYS Ventures Bhd has set up a jointventure company with Japanese firms Okaya & Co Ltd and Kondo Steel Corp from Japan to cash in on the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
AYS Ventures and Kondo Steel will each have a 45% stake in the new company while Okaya & Co will hold a 6% stake and Okaya International (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd will hold the remaining 4%.
Oh said AYS Ventures is confident of further collaboration with the Japanese firms and is looking into potential collaboration in various value-added services.
When the new regulation comes in 2018, we continue to support the industry, expand our business to this country.
Okaya International (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd managing director Takaya Wada said the Olympic Games is a big project and Japanese construction firms that are preparing for the project will need technologies including Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology.
“Our function here is supporting Japanese construction.

Architectural firm takes ‘best newcomer’ award

Saira Hussain (26) started Hussain Architectural Design in 2011 after graduating from Huddersfield University.
In addition to its head office in Standish Street the firm now operates in Blackburn, Huddersfield and Manchester.
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Chinese cash could fund Scottish construction

CHINESE investors could be attracted to plough hundreds of millions of pounds into key Scottish infrastructure projects – such as road upgrading and connecting offshore wind farms to the grid – on the back of moves to encourage foreign involvement in the HS2 high speed rail project.
Earlier this year it was revealed that Scotland is becoming a hotspot for Chinese property investors looking for an alternative to London with Edinburgh in particular attracting interest.
Michael Watson, an infrastructure and projects lawyer at Pinsent Masons, said the visit could also have a knock-on impact north of the Border but only if Scotland is able to present an attractive investment proposition for the Chinese.
Chancellor George Osborne this week travelled to China to try and attract investors there to bid for seven contracts worth £11.8 billion in total covering the first phase of HS2, between London and Birmingham.
The key is to have projects which are visible, well developed and ready to be invested in, because we are competing in an extremely competitive global market and the Chinese and other overseas investors have a wealth of options on where to put their money.”
Watson said projects of sufficient scale which could interest Chinese investors include the A9 Perth to Inverness dualling project and rail electrification programmes.

Renewable energy outstrips coal for first time in UK electricity mix

Ageing coal and nuclear plants have been closing in recent years, while renewable energy has been rapidly rolling out.
Renewable energy has for the first time surpassed coal in supplying the UK’s electricity for a whole quarter, according to government statistics released on Thursday.
However, the government’s energy statistics released on Thursday said demand “fell by 2% continuing the recent downward trend”.
Nuclear power was third with 21.5% and coal – the most polluting fuel – fell back to fourth, with 20.5%.
Gas-fired power stations provided the most electricity – 30% – with renewables second.

Giant timber megaphones amplify sounds of Estonian forest

The workshop leaders asked the interior architecture students to come up with concepts of a forest library with Valdur Mikita, an Estonian author who writes about the importance of forests to Estonian culture.
The megaphones were then positioned around a small clearing, creating a “bandstand” for the sounds produced within the forest.
Created by a group of interior architecture students from the Estonian Academy of Arts, Unplugged Kingsize Megaphones is installed in a densely forested site in the Pähni Nature Centre, near the Latvian border.
Birgit Õigus designed the winning proposal, which was then constructed with the help of fellow students and installed on the site in September 2015.
This trio of mammoth timber funnels is designed to magnify the natural sounds of a forest in southern Estonia, and to double up as a space for ramblers to contemplate and rest.

Birmingham bins £1.5bn Carillion green deal Ι Construction Enquirer

Birmingham City Council has torn up its green deal contract with Carillion, originally trumpeted as worth £1.5bn when signed in October 2012.
The council took the decision this week to terminate the Birmingham Energy Savers programme in reaction to the Government’s decision to axe funding in July for the national Green Deal Finance Company and the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund.
The eight-year contract was estimated to be initially worth up to £600m for Carillion.
To share your stories email Grant Prior or Aaron Morby… always off the record
At the time there were high hopes that this service agreement would be rolled out to the wider West Midlands area making it worth up to £1.5bn over the period.

McLaughlin & Harvey set for £65m Luton Airport job Ι Construction Enquirer

Northern Irish contractor McLaughlin & Harvey is tipped to take the biggest building package in the £100m expansion London Luton Airport.
Sources also told the Enquirer that a contract award is imminent for the improvements to the terminal building and construction of a new two-storey pier.
Whitemountain’s job is to turn the existing approach road to the terminal building into a dual carriageway, remodelling of the set-down area and the repositioning of the coach terminal.
A deal would mean contractors from Northern Ireland had bagged two of the three main packages on the programme.
The £100m investment is set to transform the airport by improving overall customer experience and increase capacity from 12m to 18m passengers per year by 2026.