Exposed ceilings in new builds and refurbishments are being specified more than ever before as Architects love the pared back industrial look. Waterloo Air Products plc has designed a clever Blanking Collar that keeps the purity of the design architects want, at the same time as maintaining performance levels.
“Air diffusion swirls are designed to be installed in standard ceilings, so if they’re fitted into a room with an exposed ceiling they often don’t give the right level of performance,” says Mat Southgate, Technical Quality Manager at Waterloo. “That’s because the ceiling itself is an integral part of the overall performance, so we needed to come up with a design that would offer the efficiency needed without compromising the pared back look.
“We can add a coanda plate as an extension to the swirl,” adds Mat. “The performance levels go up – but it’s quite big and compromises the industrial look architects want.
“To find an alternative we recreated an exposed ceiling at our in-house lab in Kent. With testing, we were able to develop the optimum combination of performance and aesthetics. The result is a small device that is designed to be easily added to the swirls. It’s a great solution, because it looks so good and it doesn’t detract from the exposed ceiling. We proved the performance of the air distribution through smoke tests and it showed that it worked really well giving a horizontal air pattern.
“When the team at Waterloo is faced with issues like this, we are looking for a simple solution. That’s why it was great to create the Blanking Collars that are so unobtrusive and inexpensive.”
