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$caff

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Evening all!

1st post!!! - just after a little advice.

I have an MEng in Civils and currently employed by a large consultancy working towards ICE Chartership. The family business is scaffolding and once chartered I would like to come back and expand the business into design.

Can you tell me what the process is eg. once chartered, I can sign off my own designs, right? Do I need any other qualifications?

I am getting up to speed on the design codes BS EN 12810 12811 etc etc, and TG20:08, but is there anything else I should be looking in to?

Regards,

$caff
 
$caff, Welcome to the forum. There are a few design engineers on here will give you all the advice, best of luck.
 
Hi $caff. I'd recommend working alongside a competent scaffold design engineer in order to gain the experience and competence required. I believe the recommended period is 2 years. Although TG20 does a good job of simplifying the design of basic access scaffolding, there is a huge amount of other design applications that scaffolding is used for and although being a chartered engineer will no doubt help in critical engineering thinking, experience in the field will make sure you consider all design aspects such as ease of erection and the safety of scaffolders as well as scaffold users. It sounds as though you'll have the experience of your family to give you a good head start, although I still think from a QA perspective you will need to have either 'served your time' under the wing of an experienced scaffold design engineer, or maybe employ some third party design-checking for a while.

I'm not totally sure on this but I'm sure some of the other guys on here will be able to give you the legal requirements.
 
Hello $caff

welcome to the forums and good luck with your venture :)
 
Evening all!

Hi $caff,

I have been in the scaffold design industry for around 6 years now (still very much learning) and am in a very similar situation with regards to chartership etc. It is nice to see that someone is in the same boat so as to speak. Good luck with that side of things and hope (as I do) that it will be a quick and easy process! (Not likely - not when the ICE or IStructE are involved. You need a degree in 'applying for chartership' with all the DO's)

I would recommend that you look for a company that has a wealth of experience in the design of scaffolding as with a good aptitude for learning, like yourself, you will learn the ropes quickly from someone with a lot of experience. I am sure chartership ensures someone can learn quickly and has a good understaning of any type of structure - you will be employed in our industry no problem. However, as the previous post rightly said, it is extremely difficult to learn without someone who has the knowledge. The practical experience from your family will also help no end.

With regards to signing off your own design it will be just a piece of paper without someone checking the design. This is the same in all forms of engineering - human error is made - all designs should be checked by another engineer in order to ensure Quality Assurance and Regulations. The recommendations of BS 5975 are a good guide to checking designs.

Other qualifications are not necessary. You have all the academia required, and with the right company, knowledge and PI you have all the requirements to engineer a scaffold.

If you want to look into engineering a scaffold I would recommend (without a doubt) looking into working for a scaffold design company. Where are you from by the way? I may be able to assist in the whole process and help you with the whole transfer to a reputable company. There are many who we often work with and are good players in the 'scaffold game'.

I wish you well in whatever you decide to do.

Kind Regards
Scaffold_Engineer
 
Thank you all for your replys!

@scaffolding_engineer, I am going to stay with my current employer for now as they are guiding my through my chartership, however I would like to start engineering scaffold outside my current job, getting work from my family with a current work colleague checking my work (unless I could get part time casual work from a design firm - do you think this would be possible?).

I am based in London.

Thanks again.
 
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