In our daily lives, our clients, specialists in the rehabilitation of industrial enclosures, usually ask us about what material in our catalog is the most suitable for the specific work they are studying.

In these cases, our sales department assesses the customer's needs and what requirements the enclosure must meet, both from a mechanical strength point of view and from a regulatory point of view. In order, in the end, to introduce you to the options that in your opinion best fit the requested needs.

This time we are going to present a specific consultation, in which our client had to replace an aged enclosure made with a profile (wave 177/51) of reinforced polyester fibers, and what needs the replacement material should meet.

As we have said, the originally installed material was a profiled plate with a usual section. Therefore, in this installation, the most direct option was to replace the same profile, while complying with current regulations. In this case, there were two options: with the same polyester fibers (RO 02) or with a corrugated polycarbonate profile thicker than the one installed (LC 02).

Both materials met the mechanical strength requirements of the enclosure (in the case of the LC, whenever a thicker profile was used than the one installed), and regulations (provided that the flame retardant option was used in the case of RO), but the end user of the space, in addition to this, wanted to:

• On the one hand, an improvement in the natural lighting conditions of the space to be intervened, and that these were durable over time.
• That the envelope, while supporting the brand's promotional label, should also serve as its claim.

The objective was to allow maximum hours of sunlight to pass inside, but properly controlled. To avoid uncomfortable reflections and glare that can alter the development of the venue's activity.

With reinforced polyester fibers, it was only possible to comply with fire regulations (CS3d0 for external cladding on the façade of an industrial establishment), with finishing colors that failed to achieve the required light transmission values.

In the case of the LC, neither the colorless nor opal options did not quite meet the requested transmission conditions. One because it let in too much light, and the other because it had a transmission rate that was too low, so it didn't meet the customer's needs.

In addition, in both cases, due to the method of installing the enclosure (you could see the mechanical fastenings of the plates), neither the type of finish of the installation nor the final appearance, it did not quite meet the envelope/claim needs requested by the customer.

With these premises, and after studying the typology of the enclosure and its supporting structure (this was only going to be cleaned up). It was proposed to follow another path, completely changing the translucent enclosure, proposing a material without a profile and a different finish, such as cellular polycarbonate systems.

In this case, with our systems, all the requested objectives were met, both those related to fire regulations and mechanical resistance (the number of existing support belts was not going to be increased). Such as those relating to the envelope/sign and to the natural lighting conditions of the space to be intervened.

Finally, the work was executed with this type of machihembrated PC panel. Thanks to the properties of cellular polycarbonate, during the day inside, a homogeneous degree of lighting is achieved while preserving the privacy of the space. And at night, due to its translucency, the interior lighting is expressed on the outside, turning the envelope into a light box.

In this rehabilitation, cellular polycarbonate systems are able to meet the most demanding requirements, both in terms of durability, resistance and aesthetics. For this reason, solutions such as our AK10 (machined polycarbonate systems) are a common option in this type of intervention, as they are functional, easy to install and aesthetically attractive envelopes.