Leaderflush Shapland - Plasform Education

The requirements of the education sector are complex; with the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative for example and the growth in demand for inspirational learning environments, designers need product solutions that will not only allow creative choice but will also meet the performance, safety and compliance levels set out in the DCSF document 'Shaping the Future of Education'.

Plasform® offers a great range of solutions from both a design and performance perspective. The choice of finishes and colour options gives designers the freedom to create vibrant, unusual or simple, contemporary environments that can complement or contrast with other features in the overall built environment.

Designers and specifiers need to take into account the requirement for certain surfaces and features to visually contrast with their surroundings, as set out in Approved Document M - Access to and Use of Buildings and in the code of practice BS8300. With the options of through-coloured PVC and High Pressure Laminates (HPL), the easy clean, hardwearing, low maintenance, scuff resistant surfaces of Plasform® can easily achieve the required contrast.

Recent product innovations offer additional benefits in education environments. For example, Hygienilac®, an antibacterial product which kills most species of bacteria including C.diff, E.coli, Salmonella and MRSA is mixed and incorporated all the way through Hygieniform PVC so that, even if the surface is scratched, the antibacterial properties remain all the way through.

Intelliglass® is an intelligent glazing system, for vision panels, that provides privacy at the flick of a switch through the use of liquid crystal glass technology. This innovation is a perfect solution to blocking vision through doorsets, therefore hiding contents of rooms, which could be beneficial in preventing theft, as educational buildings are open to members of the general public at weekends and in evenings.

When it comes to shaping the future, Plasform® can certainly help with its safe, curved edges, durable finish and wide ranging performance characteristics. That's why Leaderflush Shapland has supplied nearly 30,000 doorsets to more than 500 schools projects over the last 12 months from four manufacturing sites producing approximately 2,400 doorsets each week, proving that we are experts in supply to the education sector.