Why was SCIT formed?

SCIT was born when its founder and current Managing Director, Professor J Michael Davies was acting as consultant to a major international manufacturer of cladding products, i.e. the cladding panels themselves together with the associated products, e.g. their fixing cleats and fasteners.  His tasks were primarily product development and troubleshooting, should problems arise on site.  His services were called upon when a number of sites reported problems with sandwich panel cladding.  These problems included persistent leakage that defied the customary ‘snagging’, fixing screws working loose and profile distortion at the cut ends of the individual panels.  The buildings concerned were typically ‘Big Sheds’ (ultra large warehouses and distribution centres, often with a plan area the size of several football fields). 

In most of these cases, after preliminary discussion, the problem was presumably passed to the tenant of the property who was usually responsible for ‘maintenance’ and Davies heard no more.  In two cases, matters went much further:  In the case of ‘building A, a typical Big Shed with pitched roof portal frames and LGS purlins supporting a typical sandwich panel roof.  Some seven years after the completion of construction, the leakage had not been stopped and the Building owner sued everyone concerned with the design and construction of the building and complex litigation ensued in which Davies acted as an expert witness for the cladding manufacturer and later also for the cladding fixer.  Many detailed reports were produced and there was much discussion among the experts   It is understood that substantial amounts of money changed hands but the experts were not informed of the detailed outcomes of all this litigation and, before it was concluded, the experts were dismissed and it became clear that the lawyers were only concerned about who paid what to whom and were not interested in (or competent to decide upon) the cause or causes of the problems.

At this stage, Davies was very unhappy about this outcome because it was clear to him that there were serious problems with Building A, which was not so very different from other Big Sheds of that era. Davies let it be known that he intended to continue with his technical investigation of the cause or causes of the problems on the basis of classical structural mechanics without making overt reference to any of the data pertaining to the case.  This resulted in a letter by return post from a lawyer acting on behalf of the company concerned reminding him that, when he was appointed as an expert witness, he had signed a non-disclosure order and, if he reported any information to the detriment of the company’s products, they would take strong action against him. 

On receiving this letter, Davies severed all connection with the company concerned and SCIT was born.  It was already clear to Davies that what was required here was the ability to create detailed 3D numerical models of complete clad buildings.  This was within his capabilities but no easy task.  He immediately assigned all of his relevant existing software together with its associated intellectual property to SCIT and commenced work.  He soon decided that he needed reinforcements and was fortunate to recruit Michael Roberts who, with a first-class honours degree in structural engineering followed by several years post-graduate experience as a computer programmer with a leading software house, was perfectly positioned to provide the required expertise and was immediately registered with the University of Manchester for a part-time PhD.  This PhD is now complete, and this web site reports part of the outcome.  SCIT is ready to go into action!   

It should be appreciated that this is not an isolated incident but is indicative of a serious malaise that afflicts the steel building sector, in particular, as well as many other sectors of the construction industry in a similar fashion.  The Institution of Structural Engineers holds a library of reported structural failures, and the majority are still subject to non-disclosure orders, often many years after the event.  This, of course, prevents the industry from learning from its mistakes which should be an essential part of its growth.

From this start, it soon became clear that there was a major problem with Big Sheds, which represented a major part of the UK’s market for steel.  The industry was knowingly concealing problems on site and, at the same time, knowingly using design Standards that were many years out of date, years in which the scale of Big Sheds had increased continuously.  Furthermore, the industry was not prepared to offer any support to those who were prepared to draft the required new Standards. Thus, SCIT has continued to research in this field at its own expense and with zero support. Its technical papers now tell a complete story but stop short of giving free access to all of the evolving technology.  This web site informs the industry of the help that is now available for a realistic fee. 

SCIT believes that the above story makes it clear that that there are malign forces at work that are attempting to preserve the status quo and are resisting any attempt to update the design of today’s ever larger Big Sheds.  SCIT’s current position is detailed in its latest peer-reviewed technical paper entitled, appropriately, “Are Big Sheds safe” and published towards the end of May 2025 in the Journal of Constructional Steel Research (JCSR), see Our Publications .  Similar malign forces appear to be resisting practice-based research in UK Universities and any attempts to obtain funding for the updating of design Standards.

Furthermore, as this software has developed it has become apparent that it is very versatile and, with a little tweaking, it can be used for a wide variety of design problems, alongside Big Sheds.  This web site therefore details a number of other practical applications for which SCIT can offer unique and completely up to date help.