TDBL nonut® Follows Golden Thread For BSA Compliance

As illustrated by a recent commercial office project, cladding specialists are increasingly turning to SFS Group Fastening Technology’s innovative TDBL- nonut® fastener to ensure their installed systems achieve the objectives of the Building Safety Act, while at the same time, enabling fast and efficient installation.

Launched last year, TDBL- nonut® carries ETA-11/0191 approval, confirming that its patented thread shape, under-head locking detail and tri-lobular geometry together ensure that the fastener remains firmly in place and cannot be loosened. It represents a game-changing alternative to traditional nuts and bolts, allowing easy installation from one side of the structure: backed up by full testing and analysis.

The contract concerned a two-storey building where the architectural cladding specialist involved was seeking greater certainty over performance to discharge its obligations to the client and design team. The situation prompted its management to engage with SFS Group Fastening Technology as a trusted manufacturer serving the roofing and cladding industry.

A representative involved in the project explained: “It is essential for contractors to have a robust fastening between a curtain wall and the substrate – in this case, a steel frame system. The product selected over a traditional ‘tech screw’ was the TDBL-nonut®, which carries full ETA testing. As a result, nonut provides the robust data needed to support compliance with the Building Safety Act.”

Vincent Matthews, Head of UK Marketing for SFS comments: “The client was seeking a failsafe means of connecting their curtain wall system to the building’s structural steel frame which would offer them technical certainty, through the design process, back to the main contractor. The Building Safety Act is looking for everyone involved within a project to provide the Golden Thread: to offer a demonstration of the technical values, and how they all come together, and SFS TDBL- nonut® provides this set of data which can be used for a product and support the requirements of the Building Safety Act.

“Significantly, the TDBL- nonut® provides a tri-lobular start to the install procedure, which makes the operative’s life easier by reducing the torque load transmitted back into their hand and arm; the thread then becomes effective around the full 360^o as it connects with the components. Finally, the impact overdrives the TDBL- nonut® to ensure a reliable and secure connection that is warrantable under the ETA.”

The project team further highlighted the benefits of SFS’s support: “From the outset, SFS’s assistance proved invaluable. Their technical experts guided us through detailed calculations and product selection to ensure the right fastening solution was used. The TDBL-nonut® impressed us with its simplicity and reliability — drill, drive, tighten — making installation quick and consistent. It’s a robust, time-saving product supported by excellent technical expertise.”

TDBL- nonut® is a case hardened, thread forming fastener available in a diameter of 8.6 mm with a length of 16 mm and in a diameter of 10.6 mm - with lengths of 23, 30 and 50 mm as well as a new lower profile flatter head version of each. Further installation details and design values can be found within the assembly instructions, ETA and product literature.

For further information, call 0330 0555888 or visit https://uk.sfs.com/

West Sussex STEM Project Sees SFS JB-D Plus Window Installation Brackets Speed Progress

SFS UK’s JB‑D Plus pre‑wall window installation brackets have been specified by façade specialist Leay Ltd for the £725 k window‑and‑curtain‑wall package on Chichester College’s new STEM Academy in West Sussex, a choice Leay says streamlines site logistics while guaranteeing the structural integrity of the double‑skinned façade.

Established in 1937 and now a nationwide fabricator of Kawneer aluminium systems, the Aylesford‑based company designed, supplied and installed AA100 HI curtain walling and AA720 high‑performance windows for main contractor Willmott Dixon. The prefabricated bracket system allowed Leay’s sub‑contract teams to meet a tight timetable without on‑site fabrication while accommodating building tolerances and maintaining verified thermal and structural performance throughout the build.

SFS conducted detailed bracket testing in accordance with IFT guideline MO/02‑1 to verify performance across multiple substrates. To meet UK market's demand for values in light‑gauge steel framing systems, the company also ran additional tests in steel frames, enabling its technical Compendium to include certified values for these applications. Armed with this data, Leay’s design team were able to accurately calculate the number of brackets needed for the Chichester College project. When the new JB‑D Plus version launched, SFS supported Leay with samples and on‑site product demonstrations.

A Director of Leay, Jim Matthews, commented: “We have a very good long-term working relationship with Willmott Dixon and have done healthcare, leisure sector and public buildings as well as residential apartment buildings, over commercial premises, and of course education for them. In this case, Chichester is a new STEM facility, a high spec project targeting low U-values where we are predominantly supplying Kawneer windows together with curtain walling, which is being installed at ground floor level, around what is to be used as a vehicle workshop.

“While we have used the new version bracket from the SFS range at Chichester, we were originally introduced to the brackets by Kawneer themselves: for who we are the longest serving dealer in the country – dating back to 1968, and we currently use them on virtually every job we do nowadays. The main benefits to the JB range is that they help avoid cold bridging issues and allow for adjustment: which is particularly advantageous if you are installing long runs of windows across a façade – otherwise in the past you were looking to have sections of 6mm plate cut to size, galvanised and pre-drilled – and using a substantial amount of loose packers.”

Jim reflected: “Things have changed a lot over the years, from where you were presented with a near complete building to fit windows in - to the situation now where a building’s main structure is up - and fitting the windows on these brackets allows the exterior cladding to proceed while fit-out work can proceed indoors in weathertight conditions. So ultimately, they speed up the programme.”

Callum Thornton, fenestration product manager at SFS, explained how the project met the Building Safety Act’s requirements: “With the new Building Safety Act sharpening accountability across the entire supply chain, specifiers and installers need reliable, traceable data for every component they select. By partnering with Leay Ltd we provided our JB‑D Plus brackets together with a full suite of tested values, giving designers certainty during specification, and installers a clear, proven fixing method on site. That blend of transparent information and hands‑on support helps project teams meet the Act’s ‘golden thread’ requirements and deliver first‑time success.” For further information, call 0330 0555888 or visit https://uk.sfs.com/

SFS Center Point System Launched To Enhance Accuracy, Appearance And The Environment

Building on its well-founded reputation as a manufacturer of cladding support systems and high-performance fasteners, SFS Group Fastening Technology has developed an advance, user-friendly new system for installing flat panels across both steel and aluminium sub-frames.

Amongst the benefits of the patented Center Point System is the fact that it answers the challenge of accurately positioning the self-drilling, double thread fastener at the exact centre of the hole in the panel, ensuring the avoidance of subsequent damage to the surface through thermal movement/  It also prevents the environmental risk of plastic waste polluting the site by employing a bio-degradable, pre-fitted centring sleeve, which will not constrict the space around the shaft with any residue.

Being made available through SFS stockists nationwide, in a selection of clamping lengths to suit different panel thicknesses, the well-engineered fixing can double the rate of progress and is designed to negate the problem of façades being disfigured, sometimes within just months of completion.  Having been made available in Europe last year with a standard centring sleeve, the new SDA4 and SX4 fasteners have already been appraised for compatibility by a number of leading OEMs as well as major installers across the UK industry and are being recognised within ETAs. 

The Director of Product and Market Development for SFS, Andrew Stolworthy, comments: “Center Point solves a variety of issues in a single, simple-to-fit development; avoiding the risk of misalignment or having to utilise a separate, expensive centring device for predrilling the hole in the sub-structure member, which takes time. Otherwise, once the building is handed over, the expansion and contraction that occurs across the panel and within the sub-frame will lead to cracks or potting if the movement is not correctly accommodated." 

"With Center Point, the sleeve is ejected from the hole as the installer tightens the fixing and will then biodegrade in line with accepted scientific guidance.  The shaft, furthermore, features a double-thread which avoids it being pulled over to one side, and then there is a thread-free zone to prevent it unwinding and working loose due to vibration.”

In fact, the sleeves, given the designation CS11/4, are produced from biopolymers and other materials which science recognises as being biodegradable under DIN EN ISO 14855, while also meeting limits on heavy metals and other hazardous substances set out under EN13432.2000.  In normal soil and under moderate climate conditions, all traces of the sleeve will be subject to full decomposition by microorganisms during the lifetime of the building. 

Both the SDA4 and SX4 ranges, for steel and aluminium subframes respectively, are available in four different sizes to suit panel thicknesses of 6, 8, 10 and 12-13mm, with corresponding variations in clamping length.  Center Point will be available from early in Q3 in a full selection of RAL colours on a lead time of just five working days: well within the 6-8 week period typical for the panels themselves. For further information, call 0330 0555888 or visit https://uk.sfs.com