Chemring Energetics UK

Commissioned to assist at their weapons research and development site in South-West Scotland, MM Engineering supported throughout the design and install of no less than 21 bespoke blast doors, during a major upgrade to onsite safety facilities, capable of withstanding regular major blasts.

Typical blast defence is a health and safety feature we hope never has to be called upon, but can stand in the face of blasts and save lives when needed. Designing blast defence for a weapons testing facility opens a whole new set of requirements, as our blast doors are subjected to a daily battering of *C15 blasts, whilst requiring them to remain fully defensive and fully operable.

CEUK’s site prevented further challenges, as any designs would be ‘retrofitted’ into an already existing structure. In an ideal world structure and blast doors are designed hand in hand for a seamless defensive combination.

Rising to the challenge, the MM engineering team worked alongside the client’s appointed blast consultant to design new fixing arrangements including bespoke saddle fixings installed across many of the 21 designed double and single blast doors , in order to transfer a prediluted blast load out through the fixings and into the supporting substrate that surrounded our blast doors, dissipating the load and maintaining structural integrity and a fully operable site.

Having worked closely with the client’s appointed blast consultants throughout the design phase, the MM engineering team undertook the following stages of construction and install - creating, testing, transporting and installing all 21 doors at the Ayrshire site.

Completing Spring 2023, the CEUK project shows the full capabilities of UK designed and manufactured blast defence, pushing the limits of what can be achieved.