Exhibitor Videos

Rolatube is the world’s only volume manufacturer of Bi-stable Reeled Composite products, delivering exceptionally lightweight and compact structural solutions to a wide range of applications. The Bi-stable Reeled Composite (BRC) concept was originally created in 1997 by Andrew Dayton-Lovett who was working in London as an industrial designer. Rolatube was established as a business to commercialise the invention. As we invented the BRC concept, we had to develop products and scalable manufacturing processes from first principles, so considerable investment was made into the business before any sales were made. Bi-stable Reeled Composite A Bi-stable Reeled Composite (BRC) is a unique and counter-intuitive approach to composite design. Whereas the majority of modern composites are designed and manufactured to remain physically stable and in the same shape as they are manufactured, the Bi-stable Reeled Composite is deliberately designed to transform between two different formats when required – a rolled format and a deployed structural tube format. BRC’s are completely stable in their reeled and deployed formats, and can be deployed thousands of times. This technology offers design engineers a completely new set of solutions for deployable structural tubes, particularly in temporary applications where reducing packed volume and weight for transport is at a premium. The BRC is constructed of multiple layers of reinforced composite materials, typically glass reinforced polypropylene, and the angles of the reinforcement in the various layers can be tuned to create the bi-stability characteristics. Depending on the requirement of the application, the BRC is designed to create the right balance between size, weight, strength, rolling characteristics and cycle life. Technically, BRC’s are a member of the Slit Tube Engineered Member (STEM) family, but it is their bi-stability that sets them apart from other STEMs. Composite and metal STEMs have been in existence for a long time, but they are not stable when they are rolled. They are effectively a “wound up spring” needing to be physically constrained when in this rolled format, and have a desire to explosively deploy into the tube format. Historically, this high energy rolled state has severely limited the potential applications for STEM technology. BRC’s solve this limitation, as they are completely stable when in the rolled format, completely stable when deployed as a tube, and they deploy in a calm and controlled manner. The BRC technology therefore unlocks the huge latent potential for the use of STEM technology as a design solution, and this is the commercial opportunity that Rolatube is currently exploiting. Additionally, this low energy rolled format also allows the integration of components within the BRC composite, which would be impossible with normal composite STEMs. Rolatube has taken advantage of this characteristic by developing a range of BRC’s that incorporate rollable electronic components such as RF antennas, electrical conductors and lighting arrays within the composite. For end users, the utility of these “integrated” versions of our BRC products is unsurpassed. Our first commercial application for BRC’s was for deploying inspection cameras into nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities, where the compact nature, reliability and tolerance to radioactivity made BRC’s an easy choice for engineers faced with access constraints. From that early starting point, we have developed our understanding of the technology and now make BRC’s for a wide range of applications and markets. Based in Lymington, United Kingdom, 95% of our sales are exports, and continue to grow strongly. We sell our technology into an increasing range of global markets, either as stand alone systems, or as separate BRC components that are then engineered into finished products by our customers. All Sales, Management, R&D and Manufacturing is undertaken within our Lymington facility, and we primarily use local distributors as our route to sales in export markets. To protect the business, we have created a strong suite of Intellectual Property that covers our product technology, our manufacturing art and our applications. Now employing over 55 people, we are a modern, energetic and high performance business, determined to continue growing the business through professionalism and partnership. We truly believe that the journey for Rolatube, and the BRC technology we are creating, has only just begun.