The work of University of Bath student Roben Els during his industry placement at Vent-Axia contributed to two awards wins.

Roben Els, a final-year BSc Natural Sciences student at the University of Bath, undertook a placement at Vent-Axia last year, helping set up and run the company’s new materials testing database on recycled plastic.

This groundbreaking work was recently recognised by the industry, with Vent-Axia winning the H&V News Awards ‘Low Carbon Impact’ award, and the BEAMA Net-Zero Collaboration Award’, the latter in partnership with electricals retailer AO.

Roben joined Vent-Axia during its manufacturing transition from using virgin plastic to recycled plastic – an exciting time for the company, which is the first ventilation firm to set such high ambitions regarding the use of recycled plastic in its manufacturing.

After an initial challenge of test houses refusing to certify products made from recycled material due to recycled plastic content variations and the absence of materials data, Vent-Axia took a proactive approach, and tasked Roben with helping to test recycled plastic and collect the data that was needed.

After familiarising himself with the new testing equipment Vent-Axia had invested in, as well as the relevant industry standards, Roben began batch-testing the materials. The next step was to create a database of evidence to ensure all recycled plastics were tested and the results were traceable.

Finally, Roben compiled weekly graphs on recycling rates for use in the business. The creation of a new database paved the way for the ventilation sector: by batch-testing recycled plastics in Vent-Axia’s own labs and creating a materials database to share with test houses, Roben’s work has helped enable product certification and third-party accreditation.

“Vent-Axia aims to be Net Zero by 2040, a decade ahead of the Government’s target…the company’s target is for 70% of its sales revenue to be from low-carbon products and 90% of the plastic used in its own manufacturing to be from recycled sources.”

“It is really exciting to see everything I have worked on at the company being recognised with the two award wins, especially since people don’t generally see the time and resources that go into making such changes,” said Roben. “My year’s placement at Vent-Axia was really enjoyable and dynamic. I liked all the practical
work, I could be in the mould shop, product testing, or at my desk so it was quite varied. I learned about industry standards and how a business runs. I also witnessed how important sustainability is to Vent-Axia and how it innovates to ensure it never compromises on quality.”

Dr Simon Freakley, senior lecturer and placement tutor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bath, said: “It’s wonderful to see our placement students applying their chemistry skills to tackle global challenges, such as finding new uses for waste plastics. We’re thrilled that Roben’s contributions have been recognised, and we look forward to hearing about many more real-world impacts from our students’ work in the future.”

Alexis Roberts, channel marketing manager at Vent-Axia, commented: “At Vent-Axia we are committed to investing in people and we’re pleased to be able to offer students a placement so they can experience working in industry and to guide them on their career path. We are so pleased Roben was able to be part of our sustainability journey.”

Vent-Axia aims to be Net Zero by 2040, a decade ahead of the Government’s target. By the end of FY2025, the company’s target is for 70% of its sales revenue to be from low-carbon products and 90% of the plastic used in its own manufacturing to be from recycled sources. This manufacturing transformation involves transitioning from virgin to recycled plastic. Meanwhile, Vent-Axia is dedicated to designing innovative low-carbon products to help its customers decarbonise with heat recovery ventilation at the forefront of further growth.

Vent-Axia has now welcomed a new University of Bath student, Luke Tucker, for this year’s placement. While Roben focused on injection moulding, Luke is tasked with focusing on extrusion and PVC.

+44 (0)344 856 0590 / www.vent-axia.com