Blowing in the wind

Huge doors specified for offshore wind turbine facility on Tyneside as build-up for new industry gathers pace

Newcastle upon Tyne-based Hart Door Systems has supplied a range of doors for Clipper Windpower's new offshore wind blade facility, a phase of which has just been completed at Shepherd Offshore's Neptune Energy Park,Wallsend.

The doors were installed at the building were the blades for the turbines are made.

The space is 160m long by 27m wide with a clear height up to 20m and includes offices.

Nick Hart, Hart's technical director says: "We pride ourselves on being able to manufacture and, if necessary, source products to achieve individual and exacting targets. In this case we supplied two very large Speedor Maxi doors which are 8m wide by 8m high to enable a production flow through the building to take place adjacent the river in a very windy environment." The Speedor Maxi is built to withstand winds up to 90mph.

Each door has an insulated roller shutter and a steel fire door exit to either side of it and Hart also supplied additional roller shutters and fire doors for other parts of the plant.

In response to the forecasted growth in the UK's offshore wind sector, Shepherd Offshore is investing significantly in the design and development of new facilities to meet the needs of major manufacturers and developers who will deliver offshore projects under licence from The Crown Estate.

The River Tyne is already a major strategic location in providing facilities and offshore supply services for the renewables sector with Shepherd Offshore servicing the offshore industry for nearly four decades. It is anticipated that the Offshore Technology and Neptune Energy Park combined will be home to over 3,000 new direct jobs in the coming years.

"Collectively we are at the forefront of a new industry," adds Hart. "This is a bonus for an area that has demonstrated engineering skills and innovative solutions for decades. Hart is delighted to be part of this new industrial frontier." Hart adds the contract was a technical challenge in that the doors needed to achieve certain u-values to ensure that building was able to maintain its green credentials. A foam backing was deployed withe Speedor doors to achieve a U value of 1.44. Insulated roller shutters are also part of the project using insulated aluminium laths.