Sustainable and ambitious project nears completion

Westfort Vleesproducten (Westfort Meat Products) is a very modern slaughterhouse, where considerable investments have been made in animal welfare, improved meat quality and sustainable energy solutions. In IJsselstein, the company is now realising one of the most modern meat processing locations with an integrated cold store worldwide. Inoflex and Metaflex are doing their bit.

Gregor Massop of Inoflex explains that in 2019 they were commissioned to participate in the new construction of the fully integrated cold store. "Westfort wanted to achieve 'BREEAM Outstanding' for this," he explains. "With the certification method BREEAM-NL, building projects are assessed on integral sustainability. All kinds of aspects play a role, including the indoor climate and comfort for employees, energy savings through self-closing doors, for example, and sustainable use of materials. Westfort chose the highest achievable status within this standard."

High insulation values

"The bar is set higher with BREAAM than what is legally required," Gregor continues. "To achieve a higher insulation value, Westfort therefore chose thicker façade panels: of 140 mm instead of 120 mm. The panels for the cold store are not 200 mm, but 220 mm thick for the same reason. The inner walls have a thickness of 100 mm. In total, about 65,000 m2 of Cladding Point - Bruchapanels are used.  The insulation material used is PIR; it is lighter than PUR and has a higher insulation value. From a fire safety point of view, it is safer because less harmful smoke gases are released when heated. All panels have a food-safe laminate of 150 microns thick." Incidentally, the Brucha panels do not fit within the sustainability requirements of the project only because of their good insulation values.  I "Brucha was one of the first suppliers with a return guarantee. If Westfort ever decides to dismantle this processing site, Brucha will collect the panels and take care of their reuse. More companies are now introducing circularity in this way. An excellent development." 

Ambitious project

The new building is now almost complete. Walking around the corridors and halls, we see a wide variety of Metaflex doors. "Egbert Kruiswijk, commercial director of Westfort Vleesproducten, has been buying his doors from us for years," says Niels Scheffler of Metaflex Doors Europe BV. "I admire his business talent. Look at what he is putting in place there, a very ambitious project. He not only looks at the costs during construction, but also at the savings made in use and in life. We are proud of the trust he has in the quality we deliver. As to why he chose us, he said earlier: "These doors are durable and of proven quality. That makes me proud." 

That proven quality is endorsed by independent research from the German research firm DMT. This shows that the doors can effortlessly handle more than one million opening and closing cycles, without any interim maintenance. "It does make the replacement market smaller," Niels laughs. Even in the event of damage, a complete replacement is often not necessary because the doors have a modular design. Due to their robustness, the doors are highly suitable for use in sectors with heavy industrial cleaning, such as the meat and fish industries."

Streamlined communication

Back to the Westfort project. Gregor explains that it is divided into 11 parts. A drawing is made for each phase, which goes to project management and engineering firm PROMAD for approval. "As soon as we have their agreement, we release the panels and doors for production. The specifications state exactly what type of door it is, what the insulation values and dimensions are, whether it is left or right-handed, electrically driven or manually operated. Doors to engine rooms, for example, are extra secured and fully automated in order to meet machine safety guidelines. It is truly customised. At the start of the project, communication ran across several tracks. That sometimes caused some friction. But from the moment we directly linked the essential people, the process of recording - measuring - drawing and finalising has been perfectly streamlined."

Approach

"We owe a lot to Bernke te Winkel (Metaflex), Johan Hardeman and Gerrit Drost (Inoflex) in this regard, they manage it all," says Niels, and Gregor adds: "Thanks to the short lines of communication, there is no room for misunderstandings; definitely a working method that we will maintain in future projects; soon we will start together with the new building of Esbro in Wehl." When asked whether nothing ever goes wrong, Niels answers soberly: "Of course it does, we're just people. What matters then is how you resolve it. For example, some of the doors were damaged during transport. These were quickly produced again so that Inoflex could meet the deadlines for that phase without delay." 

Gregor: "We are very short to respond, that is our great strength. We work with a club of highly motivated people. Partly because of that, Westfort now has a building that is completely ready for the future."

www.westfort.nl
www.metaflexdoors.com
www.inoflex.nl

Photography: © Herbert Wiggerman