Headed by Joseph Macintyre, Oban Joinery are a respected local joiner based out of Argyll and Bute. The company has big plans to help tackle plastic waste crisis by weaving unused plastic into its build process.

Background

Oban Joinery has been working on a new insulation product using recycled plastic infill. The company engaged with the Make it Smart Hub to provide the recycled mix and test the thermal performance in the HeatFlow meter. The Make it Smart Hub’s role is to support Scottish businesses in the HIE region to identify solutions to common challenges and to take advantage of growth opportunities in the construction and manufacturing sectors. The Make it Smart Hub provides individual SMEs with access to support for projects identified within their business plan, helping develop new partnerships, access knowledge and enhance skills, build their capacity for innovation and collaboration, helping address current challenges and develop market opportunities for construction and manufacturing.

Overview

The project aimed to reduce plastic and use circular economy principles in construction to reduce waste and improve the thermal performance of the insulation material. The Make it Smart Hub provided HeatFlow Meter technical support and time on the machine running tests. Oban Joinery wished to use the HeatFlow meter to test their ideas, which would improve their manufacturing processes and allow them to build a business case for finance. They are using the test results to build a business case to apply for funding with Robert Gordon University. The project used the expertise within the technical team at Make it Smart Hub as well as the HeatFlow meter in the factory at Blantyre. The team used testing cassettes with various thicknesses and mixes of the product to test the effects on thermal performance. These results will enable Oban Joinery to make further decisions on testing for the development of the Interface voucher.

Benefits

The project has numerous benefits, including the ability to research early-stage prototypes and experimentation and inform investment decisions.

With insight into the thermal performance, Oban Joinery can know the true effectiveness of their idea, ultimately being able to make better informed decisions for their business and provide more reliable data for their customers, which will in turn increase their bottom line. Oban Joinery would not have been able to gather this data without Make it Smart Hub support, as test labs are not easily accessible or without a large amount of upfront paperwork and costs. 

Commercial opportunity has also come from this project as Oban Joinery wishes to develop their idea further by working with Robert Gordon University, and is using the data from this project as a basis for this.

• Partners: BE-ST, Oban Joinery
• Equipment: HeatFlow Meter
• Timescales: November 2022 - January 2023.