Page 12 - SISK NEWS JULY 2016

Flying High with

Cytec Industries

Despite it being one of the safest ways to travel, for those of an anxious disposition,

being 30,000 feet in the air will always be a nerve-racking experience. But thanks
to Sisk, a new facility is being built to help to make air travel even safer.

n Wrexham, Wales, we are building a facility of metal cladding aluminium windows and ventilation
that will supply advanced adhesive materials to louvres. The external surround to the building will be
Ithe aerospace industry. This project is for Cytec a combination of hard and soft landscaping together
(now part of Solvay) and in joint venture with Kirby with car parking for office staff.
Electrical (working under Fluor), who are undertaking Whilst our remit is construction, our design
the mechanical and electrical design and installation. management process experience has allowed us
Our relationship with Fluor has been a successful and to offer buildability advice and support from our
longstanding one dating back twenty years, and based supply chain to propose alternative design solutions,
around our pharmaceutical work for Warner Lambert improving the overall programme and end costs. The
(now Pfizer), and more recently at Amgen. Fluor design called for traditional plasterboard partitions
directly approached Sisk and Kirby to bring about a within the factory area. We proposed a solution that
construction solution for this project. In 2015 it got the go was quicker to install. It involved using large format
ahead and in February of this year we started on site. composite white wall panels with surface fixed services
With a contract value over £10 million, our role without increasing the out turn costs, whilst helping
is to construct the bespoke factory development. achieve a programme betterment.
The building is a steel frame with an in-situ ground Due to complete at the end of March 2017, this is
bearing concrete floor. The ‘holorib’ metal deck and an exciting edition to the Cytec facility. One that will
concrete floor to the first floor will support the main provide another 50 jobs on site, and will no doubt
plant deck for the process equipment. The external make those nervous flyers amongst us sleep a little
envelope and façade of the building are a combination better at night.

What’s inside the box, a word
from Cytec...
The future of aircraft fuselage design is focused
around lightweight composite materials.
Large commercial jets are typically struck by
lightning once or twice a year. Unlike their metal
counterparts, composite structures in these
applications do not readily conduct away the Kieran Brennan, Site Engineer; Simon Brunt, Senior Engineer and
extreme electrical currents and electromagnetic Kerrie Daly, Safety Advisor
forces generated by lightning strikes, so current
from a lightning strike seeks the metal paths
available. For that reason, lightning strike
protection (LSP) has been a significant concern
since the first composites were used on aircraft
more than 30 years ago.
Solvay produces LSP products in the form of The new facility will be used to produce
film adhesives and surfacing films that incorporate protective adhesives for the aerospace industry
perforated metallic foils. These have been
designed specifically for use with composite parts.
The expanded copper and aluminium foils are
embedded in the adhesive, so that lightning strike
protection is easy to achieve.
These two pictures show the difference with and
without using lightning strike protection
12 Sisk News | July 2016

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