UK BIC

Supporting the UK to become a world leader in manufacturing batteries for vehicle electrification

In 2019, Merit was awarded the contract to deliver the £14m Clean and Dry Room project for a new battery manufacturing facility in the West Midlands.

Following the UK government’s industrial strategy for the ‘future of mobility’ through Innovate UK, the new facility will give UK PLC an accelerated ability to manufacture electric vehicle drive trains and battery packs.

UK BIC was very progressive in the way they tendered and awarded the main Clean & Dry room package of work. Only room layout drawings including occupancy levels and room performance were provided, eliminating time and expense of traditional design consultants. No M+E or Structural design was given and architectural design was equivalent RIBA 2 only.

Tenderers were then invited to provide their own designs to achieve the performance and this opportunity to innovate was a key advantage to the Merit team in delivering technical and operational requirements at a competitive price through PAM methodology. Merit was pre-selected based on cost and quality of the initial layout, providing a fully itemised cost breakdown.

Working collaboratively with UK BIC, Merit developed the scope in line with layout changes in a pragmatic and open environment to deliver the technical requirements at an affordable price.

In order to develop new battery technologies for manufacture, the toolset and clean and dry rooms required the highest quality environment for development. Merit provided all of the technical scope for the new facility.

Merit provided significant design innovation through collaborative workshops to maintain technical functionality within budget constraints. There was a focus on achieving technical needs affordably. We worked collaborately to achieve affordability without technical compromise. We provided design scope change options free of charge with real-time itemised pricing.

Merit delivered dry-rooms capable of achieving specification of ISO 6 and -73°C dew point supply, -57°C dew point return in dry rooms exceeding 330m².

The bespoke design used standard components with further scope added to the original including increased Dry-room areas:

• The layout changed and increased & upgraded dry-room space
• Layout development significantly moved, from the original standalone room concept to connected line manufacturing layout during the course if the manufacturing & build
• Tool hook-up design and installation,
• Transference of significant technical scope from the CAT-B contractor to Merit
• Ageing oven enclosures and HVAC
• Lighting, data, small power, fire & gas detection

Work only started on changes after the price was agreed and instructed so the client had cost certainty which led to a pragmatic and even-handed client approach to a commercial agreement.

Merit held collaborative workshops to assess and agree on how programme and sequencing changes could be utilised to maintain the overall facility critical path programme activities. This included delaying or advancing dry room commissioning activities to prioritise OEM installation and commissioning works.

Merit also worked in collaboration to ensure risks to the workforce were minimised by sequencing works to minimise personal working in close proximately and ensuring social distancing, awareness and personal hygiene standards were maintained.

The project was completed in November 2020 with 75% of the mechanical service work delivered offsite.

There was also an instruction for additional post contract works, which Merit delivered.

The Merit ‘shopping list’ pricing approach provided transparency of competitively tendered prices for variations.

Merit utilised its PAir fully welded dry air ductwork system. Pre-assembled modules (PAM’s) were manufactured to minimise on-site works and increase production efficiency.

43No P-Air PAM’s were manufactured and installed on-site by our site specialist on-site installation teams. A further 72No HVAC and mechanical PAMs were manufactured and installed for the wet, gas and HVAC ser