Booth Industries - Case Study

Project Name:    Secure Nuclear Facility

Contract Value:  £6 Million 

Project Start Date:    2016

Project Completion Date:  2021

Scope:      circa 20 no. Power Operated Security & Blast Doors

Following on from previous successful and impressive bespoke door design accomplishments by Booth for the nuclear industry, we were contracted to carry out the detailed design,  manufacture, testing, installation and commissioning of the security and blast doors for a secure new nuclear facility .

The doors were designed and manufactured to the most exacting of nuclear standards, which ensured that they would meet the rigorous demands and assurance required under a Nuclear and Seismic safety case.

What were the project complexities?

Booth were responsible for the detailed design of mechanical and EC&I (Electrical Control & Instrumentation) works up to and including the local Programme Logic Controllers (PLC), inclusive of software design. All design was subject to configuration management, and underwent rigorous reviews before it was deemed ‘fit for’ manufacture & installation.

The doors were to be provided as critical protection assets , and as such their design had to remain Sensitive in classification.  All design work was carried out in our secure on-site facilities.

Given that this was a project requiring the highest levels of Quality Control, there were frequent hold and inspection points required throughout the fabrication process. , suitable for the demands of the project.  Downtime and inefficiency were effectively eliminated, which enabled work to be progressed at a faster rate, contributing to savings of 15% against projected labour hours at tender, offering a significant saving to the client

The installation of the doors posed further challenges due to the maturity of the process facility itself. Extensive site surveys were carried out to enable custom trolley hangers (as temporary works) to be designed and manufactured. The trolley hangers would allow the doors to be transported throughout the maze of corridors, to their final locations and then stood up without the use of any cranes.  Due to the size and weight of the doors, each of the door frame sides and lintels had to be grouted into position by a specialist subcontractor.

What did we overcome?

It was Booth’s proposal of building a full trial assembly, including drive systems and associated software,  that de-risked the project by ensuring any issues were removed prior to FAT testing. Without this risk mitigation, the project would have experienced significant delays which could have compromised the package on the critical path.

Full-scale units were manufactured in order to carry out tests and to satisfy the safety-case for the doors, which were to be fitted on the process side of the building.

The Functional requirements of the doors were extremely challenging.  Crucially, the doors had to be built to exacting tolerances for parallelism, perpendicularity, flatness and gaps between meeting edges. To ensure this was maintained, the business designed temporary supports and jigs which braced the side frames and lintels during the curing process.

The doors themselves weighed up to 10 Tonnes, and had to be operated by someone on the 50th percentile, whilst also having the option of being mechanically driven. Amongst other functional requirements, the speed of the doors opening, and the forces exerted on the closing edges of the doors, were both requirements identified as critical. All of the functional requirements were demonstrated through a client-witnessed FAT test, held within one of our Bolton facilities, over several days.

As this was the first facility of its type in the world, significant design change was introduced at several points. The business had a team of over 30 experienced Mechanical and Electrical Design Engineers who were able to react swiftly to demands, and to mitigate potential delays

What did Booth achieve?

In working collaboratively with the client to mitigate delays , which involved delinking design approval stages (allowing a phased release, instead of waiting for the full design to be complete), we cut the impact of the delay down to around 3 months – a huge achievement, saving hundreds of thousands of Pounds in prolongation costs, and demonstrating the business’ ability to mitigate much of the impact on its Completion Date, which in turn allowed the client to hold the end date of the project in-line with the Master Construction Schedule.

We managed to achieve full traceability, to the highest quality grades, over thousands of parts through our robust processes and controls, to ensure that every piece of material could be identified and maintained.

Welding methods were Sub Arc, MAG and TIG, allowing us to achieve full penetration butt welds, partial penetration butt welds, fillet welds and sealing welds.  Despite the complexity of the fabrication and welding required, there were no repair welds or repair works required through inspection and testing – a testament to the skills of the welders and fabricators in the business. Once welding and fabrication was complete, the parts were sent for final machining to ensure the exact tolerances as required on the doors.

Over 30,000 hours of fabrication work were required  to complete all of the doors.

 

 

 

Contact Us

Booth Industries
PO Box 50
Nelson Street
Bolton
Greater Manchester
BL3 2AP

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01204 366333
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From the South: Follow the M6 and M56 and M60 to A666 St Peters Way
From the North: Follow the M6, onto the M61, leave at exit 5 and follow the A676