ScaffMag finally got its first look at the eagerly awaited TG20:13 and the revolutionary eGuide… we wasn’t disappointed.
Simian Risk TG20:13 launch event
ScaffMag was invited to attend Simian Risk’s training facility in Warrington, on arrival guest were offered tea or coffee and bacon butties with the promise of a hog roast for afters. Squeezing into the packed seminar room, industry professionals were greeted by Simian Risk’s MD’s Simon Hughes and Ian Fyall.
Simon Hughes who is widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading scaffolding safety advisors kicked off the presentation on the new guidance. The new TG20:13 will take the form of four distinctive guides, including two new easy to follow colour illustrated books and the amazing new software known as the eGuide.
eGuide
Ian Fyall gave a live demo of the revolutionary eGuide, developed by the very talented guys at CADS. The software, like magic automatically calculates a scaffold design as the user is building the job on the screen. The user is 
able to build many different types of structures using the software including, Independent Scaffolding, Putlog scaffolding, Lift shaft towers and even Chimney stack scaffolding.
Once finished the user is able to print out or email a TG20:13 compliance sheets proving the scaffold to be erected doesn’t need a costly time-consuming engineer’s design. The eGuide runs on desktop, laptop and tablet computers.
NASC members will get one free copy of the suite; Non-members will be able to purchase the new guidance from the NASC website at the cost of around £1,000 from January/February 2014
Many people presume this new guidance will have a knock on effect within the scaffold design industry, in a previous ScaffMag article we spoke to one of the most prevalent scaffold design company’s in the UK 48.3 Scaffold Design Ltd for a comment on the new TG20:13 documents and eGuide and how it will affect the industry.
Managing Director, Ben Beaumont from 48.3 Scaffold Design Ltd said:
“The new revision of TG20 looks like a considerable improvement; the hard work CADS and the NASC working group have put in will be of benefit to everyone in the industry and will no doubt turn into a worldwide benchmark for scaffolding with tube & fittings.
48.3 Scaffold Design Ltd are in full support of this new document – a document of this scope is overdue and desperately needed within our industry. The new range of standard designs will ease the burden on scaffolding design engineers in the UK. Most busy design engineers are not spending their time designing loading bays, short bridging sections or towers. Yes, we all design them, but generally as part of bigger schemes and projects. When these items are the only aspect of scaffolding that should be designed on a smaller site they often go undesigned! TG20:13 will now provide a solution to this problem; the standard designs will mean the scaffolds that often ‘slip through the net’ can be erected by a competent scaffolder to the compliant TG20:13 design.
The new ‘e-guide’ looks like it will be a really useful tool for scaffolding contractors. It provides a quick scaffold selection process which results in a concise and effective document to demonstrate the suitability of the scaffold and list key erection criteria.”
Other speakers on the day included: Dave Randles, Dave Abraham and Keith Squires.
Afterwards
On leaving the warmth of the seminar room 15,000 Sq feet of training goodness greeted us as we entered the practical training area. Here we saw practical demonstrations of Scaffolder Rescue, PASMA training and some innovative access products. Also in the training area stalls had been erected by businesses promoting their wares that included SmartScaffolder,Leaches and Layher UK.
