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Radan Meets Gold Medal Standard For Olympic Buildings

Radan, from Planit Software, is ensuring that a wide range of architectural fabrications on London’s 2012 Olympic buildings are manufactured to gold medal standards.

Donkin Fabrication Ltd, of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, are producing the items on an Amada Arcade 212 Punch Press. They include a variety of:

insulated gutters
ridge vents
aluminium flashings
bull nose flashings
soakers
aluminium welding
louvres
rainwater screens
window sills
cappings
column casings.

The fabrications are part of the total envelope solution for the Olympic buildings, which includes curtain walling, cladding and roofing being managed by Donkin’s customer, Red Architectural, who are working for the main contractor, construction company Westfield.

Jason Patterson, Donkin’s sales and production manager (pictured left), says his team are providing the full architectural engineering package for the Olympics from heavy duty steel through to light steel and Paroc. “Everything has to be pre-punched, so it’s got to have exactly the right amount of fixings, with punched holes in exactly the right places. Anything that needs a hole, anything that needs marking and anything that needs tapering, goes through Radan Radpunch.”

He cited a guttering system as an example of how Radan saved them considerable time, while guaranteeing a perfect product. “The run of gutters had 30 lengths, and each of those lengths needed to be identical. Manufacturing them before we had Radan would have involved marking and drilling each one individually. But with Radan we’ve got the facility to draw it once, tool it, punch it and check it. And the entire production run is done through a single program. It’s speeded up our manufacturing process ten-fold, and ensures quality and precision.”

While the Amada is the only machine they drive with Radan at the moment, they are looking to expand their use of the world’s most powerful sheet metal CNC software to control their press brakes. Also, they currently use Radraft 2D, and are considering developing 3D design work. “We want to be able to show customers a 3D image of what we’re going to manufacture for them, and be able to send them working drawings. This means we’ll be able to attract new customers and work with them from their tender stage. We’re finding that a lot of companies now want to work with fabricators who can provide them with samples and working drawings from the very start of their projects.”

Spectacular Tiled Facade

Although they just use Radan on the Amada, Jason Patterson says they have already won business they could not have taken on without it, including this spectacular scaled-effect frontage at Shotton Hall School, Peterlee, County Durham.

The contract required a shingle tile facade for a curved building which also leaned forwards. “Other fabrication companies backed away from this job because they just couldn’t see how it could be done. Using the architect’s drawing which showed the curve and slope, Radan plotted everything right from the start.”

Donkin’s CAD/CAM team of Andrew

Hillary and Paul Briddick (pictured right) created the design on Radraft, then tooled and nested it before sending the CNC codes to the Amada to produce a sample.

“Radan meant we could go through several drafts very quickly and efficiently until we were completely happy that we had found the best possible solution” says Jason Patterson. The completed facade took 2,100 shingle tiles, and Radan standardised the marking, punching and bending. “If we’d had to mark each individual tile and cut it by hand it would have been too expensive, and we wouldn’t have been able to do the job.”

Paul Briddick moved to the design and programming department from the shop floor and general office, and says Radan makes his job so much easier. “The automatic tooling and nesting features are massively helpful, and it’s very user friendly.”

Andrew Hillary has used Radan extensively for a number of years, and was delighted to find it was established at Donkin Fabrication when he joined the company. “The speed and ease with which I can modify parts is a real winner for me, and puts it ahead of other software packages.”

Radan was introduced to Donkin’s directors by Jason Patterson when he purchased the Amada two years ago. “If we were still cutting items out with a jigsaw like we used to, there’s no way we could compete in the current economic climate. I knew that Radan could revolutionise our business, and the directors now say they don’t know how we managed without it. It speeds up production of our standard products, while helping us to develop the 75 – 80% of our products which are completely bespoke. Radan puts us on an even playing field with our competitors who also use it, and keeps us well ahead of competitors who don’t have it.

“It means we can develop more bespoke products which are our high earners, and will play a major part in our expansion plans over the coming years.”

Donkin Fabrication started as a subsidiary of Donkin Roofing, nine years ago, specifically to handle fabrication for the roofing company, and began taking external contracts in 2006. They currently have 28 employees, having grown from 12 just 4 years ago.

Radan helps win business that other companies back away from
Radan puts Donkin on level playing field with competitors who have it, and ahead of those who don’t
Donkin directors don’t know how the company managed without Radan
It’s speeded up their manufacturing process ten-fold, while ensuring quality and precision.

Pictured right --
The spectacular tiled facade created with Radan, being installed at Shotton Hall School