Purlins hit the slopes at new ski centre

Steel purlins from Metsec have been used to create the external shell of the Chill Factor, the UK’s longest and the world’s widest real snow indoor ski slope.

Located at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, the £31M Chill Factor development is said to bring together the best snow sports, extreme sports and expert tuition all under one roof.

Containing a slope measuring 180m-long and 100m wide, the steel-framed structure needed 116t of Metsec’s light gauge galvanised Z-section purlins and C-sections rails.

MetSPEC design software enabled the rapid evaluation of loadings to be calculated taking into account different cladding requirements, including the innovative horizontal cladding which was designed to produce various textures to the building.