KES Group
Company background:
Established in 2009, KES Group has grown to become a sector leader in the design, manufacture, and assembly of modular building solutions and in the provision of specialist energy services. With over 5,500 successful installations, clients place their trust in their reputation as leaders of this market – a reputation KES Group don’t take lightly.
With successful projects spanning across the Education, Healthcare, Government, Retail and Commercial sectors, the company has expanded its operational scope to offer SMARTBUILDS that transform the way their customers work and do business. They bring together a dynamic and unrivalled team of surveyors, engineers, designers, and project managers to deliver a new generation of precision-engineered SMARTBUILDS that are ultra-high-specification, fully relocatable and efficient across all sectors of industry. Striving to surpass the expectations of their clients in every project they manage, KES Group is proud to construct all of its SMARTBUILDS in one of the largest and most advanced offsite construction facilities seen anywhere in the UK or Ireland.
Challenge:
KES Group worked with the Product Design Centre (PDC) at North West Regional College (NWRC) to better understand 3D CAD capability and use it to its full potential. The company wanted to establish solid workflows using parametric 3D CAD for their modular building solutions and produce 3D printed models to communicate the designs effectively to their clients.
Solution:
To assist and make their idea a reality, KES Group contacted the NWRC PDC who supported them through the InnovateUs programme which is funded by Department for the Economy.
NWRC Engineering Technical Consultant, Jonathan Steele, provided 50 hours of upskilling support in SolidWorks 3D CAD and Additive Manufacture. The PDC demonstrated modern 3D printing techniques including SLS and SLA printing.
Impact:
The company was able to successfully develop digital 3D CAD designs and 3D printed models to communicate the designs effectively to their clients.
Brandon Mullan, Architectural Technologist at KES Group described the benefits of working with NWRC’s PDC via the Department for the Economy InnovateUs Programme:
“The training in 3D CAD modelling and 3D printing that we received from the Product Design centre at NWRC was very informative. We produced some detailed scaled models and were particularly impressed by the capabilities of the SLS 3D printer.”