For the last decade, the construction industry has responded to market forces by raising standards of safety and structural performance, while reducing the costs of building and maintenance. Achievements in research have increased strength of construction, and made installation both quicker and cheaper. These developments have been made possible by modular designs that provide fast, inexpensive and reliable building methods.

The Sarchex system has adopted this approach. The composite design enables rapid installation of high strength, cost effective structures.

The system uses creased sheet elements clamped together to form a honeycomb framework. This can be cast in concrete, or filled with any suitable material to make the required design. The novel construction has applications in the building, construction and highways sectors. It could be used as a permanent or temporary support for roofs and walls, or for concrete pavements, tunnelling, and retaining wall structures.

The system has IPR protection in the form of relevant patents covering its main properties, in summary:

• Hexagonal modules ensure high structural integrity
• Fixings between the hexagonal elements give cohesion and stability
• Cross bars reinforce the structures where necessary
• Cast concrete fillers or steel slabs give further strengthening
• Lightweight assemblages have high load bearing capacity, and competitive strength:weight performance ratio

No catastrophic failure has so far been observed in laboratory destructive tests, which have shown that the system failure is ductile.