Ecoframe specified for £500m hospital

Ecoframe, an innovative material door and partition framing product from Winkhaus, is being used at the new £500m hospitals development in Manchester.

Catalyst Healthcare, the private finance initiative (PFI) consortium managing the build, has aimed to incorporate recycled, alternative products into the build wherever possible.

Ecoframe, designed by Winkhaus UK, is an entirely recycled product consisting of an outer aluminium skin and a core made up of polypropylene, polyurethane, paper and aluminium – typically these are recycled from plastic shopping bags, plastic bottles and aluminium cans. The product is intended for use in conjunction with Winkhaus’ range of multi-point door locking systems.

The project team at Bovis Lend Lease, the construction arm of Catalyst Healthcare, discovered the product early on during the development, which includes the biggest children’s hospital in Britain.

“We were in search of a viable alternative to timber and PVC-U partition frames”, explains Mark Buckle, technical director for Bovis Lend Lease. “Ecoframe not only reduces material and labour costs, but it can be infinitely recycled in accordance with the EU landfill directive.

“We have already installed 420 Ecoframe partition windows at the site, and this figure is likely to increase as we intend to install further partitions in the ancillary buildings.”