Thick Wall and GRP Alternatives

The first attempt to introduce a thick wall aluminium tower was made in 1974 when S&C launched their Climalite tower range. This was intended to replace their rapidly ageing steel tower hire stock. Hence It was made in the same sizes as steel towers with platform sizes of 5ft 7ft and 10ft square with frame heights of 1m. The tower used 48mm 1inch and 29/32^nd standard aluminium scaffold tube of low tolerance wall thickness. The two smaller sizes never enjoyed much success but the 10ft x 10ft tower gained popularity in some niche markets. The product was also developed into a façade scaffold at a later date.

In the late 1970’s GKN Kwikform, a large scaffolding and formwork company decided to enter the tower market to supplement their range of steel system scaffolding. In an attempt to differentiate their product from the now numerous towers on the market and to overcome the damage problem which towers were suffering from due to being used in situations more suited to scaffolding they built their tower the Kwiktower out of thick walled aluminium tube but with an outside diameter of 32mm. This being a stock tube size. The tower also featured a cruciform spigot design.

A later attempt to introduce a thick-walled tube onto the market took place in 1981 with the launch of the Alto tower. This also used tube of 48mm diameter but unlike the Climalloy tower it used a higher tolerance wall thickness of 3mm. This allowed it to be compatible with standard scaffold tube and couplers and sustain a higher platform load. This along with its conical spigot reduced the risk of damage if the product was used in a construction environment.

In 1983 the market was surprised by the introduction of a GRP tower. This was developed by Genie Industries in Seattle USA. It was based on the dimensions of the Upright tower and was initially offered as an all GRP or a hybrid aluminium/GRP alternative under the brand name Protec. At the time S&C were the UK distributors for Genie products and so they took on the initial distribution of the product in the UK. They tested it to the British Standard and gained the approval of the safety authorities. However, the initial market response worldwide was not as good as Genie had hoped and they gradually reduced their commitment to the product. When one of their marketing team was asked for the reason the product was not doing so well she famously replied “we know what the problem is. It’s cursed!” An exaggeration perhaps but the product was initially dogged by user’s resistance to the use of composite materials and the use of glues for jointing. As these technologies have become used more widely, particularly in aviation this resistance has all but disappeared and the product has established itself.

Because of Genie’s disappointment with the product and because of environmental issues in the USA, Genie Industries withdrew from manufacturing the product. However, CTE, Genie’s powered access distributor in Rovoretto, Northern Italy, saw great potential in the product. CTE acquired the tooling, intellectual property and all marketing rights from Genie and, together with ex-Access Equipment salesman Pete Pemberton (Planet Platforms) worked on the development of an upgraded version of the all GRP tower. CTE set up a dedicated manufacturing / sales company called Genex (derived from ex-Genie, abbreviated to EX-GEN thus GENEX). Youngman too saw potential in the inherent safety characteristics of a GRP tower system. It is electrically non-conductive and chemically inert making it suitable for use in the pharmaceutical and food processing industries as well as high-voltage applications such as power transmission and rail. Youngman turned initially to Genex and had a variation of the product produced in their colours and in metric dimensions. It is marketed as BoSS Zone 1 tower. Subsequently production was moved to India. Inevitably these days one can also source a similar product manufactured in China and distributed in the UK and other markets.