The new trade association for the UK’s structural insulated panel (SIPs) manufacturing and construction sector has appointed its first chairman.
Andrew Orris, managing director of SIPs manufacturer Innovare Systems Ltd, was unanimously elected to the post by the other founder members of UKSIPs.
The organisation itself was officially launched in April and currently has 10 members comprising the leading SIPs manufacturers and building specialists, plus the British Board of Agrément as an associate member.
The body was formed in response to the “significant rise in the use of SIPs in both residential and commercial buildings”. Its role will be to help members resolve technical issues, keep them abreast of market developments that impact on the SIPs sector and provide generic industry PR and marketing. The aim is also to provide education and training and represent the interests of UKSIPs members to government and “major public sector clients”.
The organisation predicts growing use of SIPs construction as building energy efficiency standards are raised. “SIPs provide very thermally-efficient buildings with much improved air tightness, contributing significantly to energy conservation and carbon reduction,” it states on its website, www.uksips.org.
It also maintains that SIPs buildings score well under the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes and, besides being used as a structural element in their own right, have the added angle on the market that they can be used as infill panels and cladding in steel and concrete framed buildings.
