Almost all RB Farquhar prefabricated bathroom pods start life as simple coils of unoiled galvanised strip steel 160mm wide by 0.725mm thick (roughly twice the thickness of the steel used for conventional steel channel).
RB Farquhar has developed a highly efficient in-house steel cold-rolling capability within its main bathroom pod manufacturing plant, where the strip steel is fed through powerful forming machines which shape it into a channel profile, automatically punch out pre-programmed holes for pipework, ductwork and bolt fixings, and then cut the extruded channel to length.
The cold-rolled channel sections which are produced on demand in this way go on to form the 63 x 37mm posts, rails and pattresses of the assembled bathroom pod frame.
Lightweight galvanised channel frames have several advantages over conventional welded steel box frames which were previously used for the manufacture of prefabricated bathroom pods.
They are significantly lighter than welded steel frames, and this offers cost savings at many stages of assembly, transport and final installation; they are also more cost-effective to produce; and offer superior fire and acoustic performance.
In production terms, cold-rolling the lightweight pod frame in this way offers RB Farquhar and its clients complete in-house control of the assembly process, along with optimum "on-demand" manufacturing flexibility. Having an in-house cold-rolling capability also allows RB Farquhar to avoid fluctuations in the price of fabricated steel.
For added protection, RB Farquhar also maintains a full 100% back-up of all on-site steel forming operations to ensure continuity of output at all times, while the computer-controlled formers can be easily re-programmed for any additional or ad-hoc production runs of channel which are required.
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