Ultraframe Continue to Invest in the Best

Friday 17th October, 2008

For many fitters, the Classic system from Ultraframe is the system they have ‘grown up’ with – with Classic being acknowledged as not only the finest, but also the most advanced conservatory roofing system on the market. Long renowned for its innovative culture and desire to push the boundaries of conservatory design and technology, Ultraframe continues to invest in the system that ‘fathered’ the modern conservatory industry.

There are over 1 million conservatories which feature the Ultraframe Classic roofing system performing day in day out, all installed over the 25 years since Ultraframe first started trading. The heritage of continued investment in Research & Development has yielded many improvements to the system over the years, the majority of which have been driven by Ultraframe’s desire to improve on the technical performance of the roof, ensuring a level of flexibility and structural integrity greater than any other system on the market. Whilst the majority of these enhancements have been to the product itself, ‘thinking outside of the box’ has also meant that Ultraframe has also made changes to the design process to ensure total structural stability. This desire to assist the industry with ensuring all conservatories are fit for purpose was heralded with the market-first of a PC based software to design each individual conservatory roof to BS6399, ensuring that snow and wind loads for the individual postcode location are taken into account when specifying the structural specification of the roof.

The most recent enhancement to the system has been the introduction of a Super Duty Eaves Beam which can be specified for use on conservatories featuring increasingly popular bi-fold doors. These doors have grown in popularity over recent years, largely due to their promotion on prime-time home improvement programmes such as Grand Designs. Whilst allowing installers to offer a new way to open up a conservatory, installers need to take into account the increased loads that bear onto these longer spans of eaves beam.

The new Super Duty Eaves sits 38mm taller and 25mm wider than the standard Ultraframe product, allowing for door openings which are much wider than normal without the need for a ‘goal-post’ portal arrangement. The great news for fitters is that the new product is effectively a `big brother’ to the existing eaves beam, and so goes together in the same way and interfaces smoothly with box gutter systems and the Gable Support product.

Mark Hanson, Marketing Manager at Ultraframe commented: “The Classic system is the founder product of the conservatory industry and the new Super Duty Eaves Beam is the latest enhancement designed by our renowned R&D Team. Unusually for us, this is a product enhancement that has been driven by consumer demand as the bi-fold doors have become more popular. Ultraframe are committed to ensuring that our products are structurally sound, as demonstrated through our commitment to designing to BS6399 and also the design of the Super Duty Eaves Beam, which ensures that conservatories featuring bi-fold doors have adequate structural stability. We believe that new product development being driven by consumers can only be a good thing, as it means that we are giving our customers products to service a genuine need in the market. Ultraframe invest heavily in research, with both the trade and with consumers to ensure that we deliver to suit the needs of both, but of course, are agile enough to respond to demand too.”

To ensure that New Product Development remains at the heart of Ultraframe, a new division has been created, allowing talented designers to focus their attention on creating the next generation of first-to-market products that Ultraframe has become renowned for over the last 25 years. The new division, headed up by Andrew Thomson, operates from a specialist unit, near to the market leaders Clitheroe head office. Andrew commented: “In order to allow our renowned R&D team the space and time to work creatively on these new concepts we have established a separate business unit within Ultraframe, which will work from a different location. Light and space are still desirable attributes for people wanting a conservatory but Ultraframe want to put back the ‘wow’ factor and add some excitement into the product. We believe that by allowing this team to work autonomously and away from the day to day business, we will be able to move our whole game forward and develop opportunities within the conservatory market and beyond. We urge any installers wanting to offer their customers innovative home improvement products to look to Ultraframe – as well as continuing to invest in the Classic system, there are many exciting concepts coming to fruition over the coming months.”