SWC collaborating with Quinn Building Products Limited

Many projects start with an initial phase of communication to establish feasibility and to define in detail the project brief. Connected 3 funding facilitated this between SWC and Quinn Building Products Limited. SWC then signposted Quinn Building Products toward Invest NI to secure additional funding to support the developmental stage of the project.

SWC COLLABORATING WITH QUINN GROUP About the Company
Since it was first founded in the 1970’s, the Quinn group of companies has grown into one of the most successful manufacturers of building products in the UK and Ireland.

From its humble beginnings when its origins lay in the supply of sand and gravel to local builders and farmers, it has now transformed into a multi-national business with an impressive portfolio of products.

In 2014 the Quinn Group separated some of its divisions and Quinn Industrial Holdings Limited was formed to control two of the key divisions within the Group; Quinn Building Products Limited and Quinn Packaging Limited.
Quinn Building Products encompasses all of the core building material operations within the Group, including;

Quinn Packaging is a leading producer of Rigid and Flexible Food Packaging in the UK and Ireland and its range of products include; Thin Gauge Sheet, Dairyspread Containers, Meat/Poultry Trays, Blownfilm and Silage Wrap.

About The Case
South West College is committed to delivering pioneering robust digital creative solutions. Recently the College embraced an opportunity to utilise its highly trained staff and investment in industry standard equipment, to solve a visualisation problem for Quinn Building Products.

The College worked closely with QBP to develop a bespoke range of visualised media assets including:

• A state of the art virtual reality showcase of QBP products using Oculus Rift and Unreal Engine 4
• An augmented reality solution harnessing augmented reality toolkit, Autodesk Maya and Unreal Engine 4
• A customised stinger to highlight QBP product ranges.
Quinn’s in-house technical team joined forces with South West Colleges’ dynamic and diverse visual technologists and programmers to produce a new and exciting solution.

Paul Melanophy, Business Change Manager from Quinn Building Products said: “It’s no longer enough to simply talk about the performance of our products, customers are demanding a more engaging and highly visual experience, which is why we wanted them to see for themselves exactly how Quinn products work together to provide solutions.”

“We’re always looking for new ways to communicate with our customers and what better way than to create a virtual environment they can enter, engage and experience first-hand, South West College has helped us to achieve this.”

The solution developed demonstrates key junctions that exemplify heat loss due to thermal bridging. The viewer can see how optimum thermal performance is achieved by selecting the right products and construction detail.

Jason Martin, Specification Manager from Quinn Building Products said: “The idea behind the virtual home was created out of a need to demonstrate our range of thermal insulation
products and accredited construction details in an interactive way. It’s a pretty cool way to bring to life what can otherwise be a complex set of technical drawings and numbers.”

Paul McGovern, Lecturer Animation and Game Design from South West College said: “When Quinn first approached us to work on the VR home we knew it was going to be an exciting project, Quinn has always embraced new technology and it was the perfect opportunity for our developers at the college to venture into a new type of virtual environment.”

Stephen Moss, Curriculum Manager for Technology commented: “The VR house has the style of an architecturally designed home, perfectly suited to achieving Passive House thermal standards – and we wanted to showcase digital construction and design using the most innovative technology experience possible.”

About the Knowledge Provider
South West College is at the heart of the communities of Tyrone and Fermanagh. These two counties and their people have a long and proud history of both national and international interaction. The College is physically represented at campuses in Cookstown, Dungannon, Enniskillen and Omagh. The College employs over 500 full time and part time staff servicing some 14,000 enrolments with a turnover of £40m and makes a major contribution to the local and regional economy.


The Results
The solution developed demonstrates key junctions that exemplify heat loss due to thermal bridging. The viewer can see how optimum thermal performance is achieved by selecting the right products and construction detail.

Jason Martin, Specification Manager from Quinn Building Products said: “The idea behind the virtual home was created out of a need to demonstrate our range of thermal insulation
products and accredited construction details in an interactive way. It’s a pretty cool way to bring to life what can otherwise be a complex set of technical drawings and numbers.”

Paul McGovern, Lecturer Animation and Game Design from South West College said: “When Quinn first approached us to work on the VR home we knew it was going to be an exciting project, Quinn has always embraced new technology and it was the perfect opportunity for our developers at the college to venture into a new type of virtual environment.”

Stephen Moss, Curriculum Manager for Technology commented: “The VR house has the style of an architecturally designed home, perfectly suited to achieving Passive House thermal standards – and we wanted to showcase digital construction and design using the most innovative technology experience possible.”

An in depth technical discussion of the article can be found on the Unreal Engine website -https://www.unrealengine.com/showcase/building-the-future-how-one-project-points-to-the-convergence-of-education-and-industry-in-the-uk


Contact Details of Knowledge Provider:South West College
Contact Name: Stephen Moss / Paul McGovern / Stephen Trimble
Telephone Number: 0845 603 1881
Email: stephen.moss@swc.ac.uk