News in Brief: July 2016

Software specialists Trimble and Autodesk have entered into an interoperability agreement aimed at saving customers time and reducing project costs typically associated with workflow inefficiency across different suppliers’ technologies. The companies said this will benefit architects, engineers and contractors, and importantly, project owners by enabling more freedom to optimise technology workflows.

Severfield has reported increased revenue and profit for the year ending March 2016, and its strongest order book for more than six years. In its annual results, the company posted revenue up 19% to £239M, up from £201M in 2015, while profit before tax was up 59% to £13.2M. Severfield’s UK order book, as of 1 June 2016, amounted to £270M, up from £185M in November last year.

After two years of design work, Sherwin-Williams said it is now ready to launch a Tekla plug-in tool that allows steelwork contractors to accurately put intumescent coating thicknesses into their 3D models. The company added that it will allow customers to quickly produce fabrication drawings with this important information in print, as before this work had been a laborious manual process.

Voortman Steel Machinery has launched the compact V302 plate-cutting machine, which is said to be equipped with all basic functions of Voortman’s existing plate cutting machines, while being compact, fast and user-friendly. It is available with either a plasma cutting torch, an oxy-fuel torch or a plasma/oxy-fuel-combination.

Computer technology company Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) is expanding its Cambridge headquarters at Peterhouse Technology Park, with the construction of a new steel-framed building. Working on behalf of main contractor Kier, Caunton Engineering is fabricating, supplying and erecting 1,500t of steel for a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ building that will increase ARM’s onsite office space from 16,500m² to 35,000m².