Warmfill Ltd Insulation

Warmfill Ltd Insulation is an active business with operations in Insulation, Plumbing, Heating and Air-conditioning Installation.

Warmfill LTD The company’s main business is in the manufacture of polystyrene thermal grade bead, one of the best materials to fill existing or new build cavity walls, which they specially manufacture under strict controls at their Larne Warmfill factory.

About the Case

SERC has been working with Warmfill Ltd over the past two years to help develop their Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) Walling product, which has enormous potential for reducing the cost of building new homes, renovations and drastically reducing energy bills, helping to meet the UK energy targets.
The company’s dilemma was how to get the idea off the ground, train staff and get product approval, certification etc moving to manufacturing and zero carbon, low energy home building. SERC with its close ties to UUJ engaged in a research process of product evaluation working with the company in supplying consultation, employees and training. SERC aided the company in securing an Innovation Voucher to get the product approval tested in the FIRE Safety Engineering Research and Technology Centre in UUJ. The test panels have now been approved by the FIRE cert centre in UUJ and SERC staff have now engaged with social housing providers to agree research test sites, building new and retrofit examples to study the products capabilities.

About the Knowledge Provider

SERC is a top UK college and aims to be world class by 2020 and has been described as the ‘cutting edge’ college of the Northern Ireland Further Education sector. As part of this sector we are the delivery arm for government to ensure that the NI economy has the skills to grow, innovate and operate on a global platform. SERC has developed the multi award winning environmental skills centre specialising in sustainable and renewable technology training and industry consultation. SERC enjoys strong contacts with both local universities and many global research centres and universities. The Warmfill (ICF) panel testing and approval was conducted under the supervision of:- 

Professor Faris Ali (Fire Safety Engineering Research and Technology Centre UUJ)
Chair in Structural Engineering
School of The Built Environment
University of Ulster
Shore Road
BT37 0QB, UK.
Tel./Fax. +44 (028) 90 368302

The Results

The product is now in the process of moving to sample new build and retrofit installations for research and approval purposes. The next element will be the training of Warmfill staff to manufacture the panels, progressing to building test apartments on a “real” life basis for full research, certification and approval purposes.

Contact Details of Knowledge Provider:

Knowledge Provider Name Joint project SERC & UUJ FIRE centre
Contact Name John Ross & Professor Faris Ali UUJ
Telephone number: John Ross 07825835469 Professor Faris Ali UUJ 44 (028) 90 368302