When it comes to comes to being qualified to deliver high performance fenestration solutions for the education market, Senior Architectural Systems’ recently extended PURe^® range of aluminium windows and doors puts the company at the top of the class.

Already a popular choice in the education sector thanks to its robust construction and exceptional thermal performance, Senior’s patented PURe^® range now includes the new PURe^® Commercial Door – the company’s largest and most flexible door system to date.  Ideally suited for use in medium to high traffic areas where frequent access is required, the new PURe^® Commercial Door is available as a standard, electronic-locking and panic-exit system and with a wide variety of door stiles, allowing it to be specified in a multitude of different configurations and design options. Designed to perform up to a maximum leaf size of 1400mm x 3000m and 180Kg, the robust PURe^® Commercial door system can achieve U-Values as low as 0.94 W/m² K when calculated as a CEN Standard door and is able to receive double or triple glazing from 28-60mm for maximum thermal and acoustic performance.

Senior also has a number of supply chain agreements in place with key main contractors working in the education sector. The company’s extensive range of aluminium doors, windows and curtain walling systems has been widely specified for use on primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities and student accommodation schemes across the UK.

Senior’s thermally-efficient PURe^® windows in particular have become a popular choice with main contractor Bowmer & Kirkland (B&K). After being successfully trialled by B&K in 2016, Senior’s innovative window solution has now gone on to be specified on over 30 projects as part of the company’s delivery of the Education Funding Agency (EFA)’s framework contracts, including the Brixton Hill Education Campus in Lambeth. Comprising three separate colleges, the new five-storey campus at Brixton Hill in Lambeth was subject to strict planning requirements owing to its close proximity to the neighbouring Grade II Corpus Christi Church.  Designed by Jestico + Whiles to complement the aesthetics of the local architecture and meet the performance demands of a modern educational facility, the new-build campus features the extensive use of Senior’s PURe^® aluminium windows, installed by MB Glass Ltd.

Awarded a UK patent in 2016, the PURe^® system is the first on the UK market to benefit from an enhanced thermal barrier manufactured from expanded polyurethane foam (PUR) and has the potential to provide up to a 35% improvement in U-values. Traditionally used in cladding and insulation products, the innovative use of PUR as a thermal barrier in windows and doors gives the PURe^® range the potential to offer exceptional thermal performance, with the aluminium window achieving U-values as low as 0.71W/m² K when calculated as a commercial CEN standard window.

The full PURe^® range now includes a flexible range of fenestration solutions, with the new PURe^® Commercial door joining Senior’s popular PURe^® FOLD and PURe^® SLIDE patio doors, which also includes the PURe^® SLIDE triple track option, and the PURe^® aluminium window, available as a casement, tilt/turn or fully reversible overswing style.