Rebar Buddy raises the bar for construction

Safety and sustainability are top priorities for the UK construction industry with significant efforts being made to improve safety standards and sustainable practices, including the use of products specifically designed to meet on-site safety requirements and help the industry reduce its environmental impact.

The development of an innovative new product, called the Rebar Buddy, mitigates some of the risk of injuries caused by exposed reinforcement bars – or rebars for short – and signifies a step in the right direction for the industry, especially as its designed to be fully recyclable to meet contractor demands for sustainability.

The Rebar Buddy, which is distributed exclusively in the UK by Selkent, represents a significant improvement on existing methods of nullifying the hazards posed by the exposed ends of protruding rebar sections.

Rebars play a crucial role in ensuring the integrity of buildings. Typically, made from steel, a rebar is used to strengthen concrete structures by increasing its tensile strength. However, they can cause safety issues for those working on site, with protruding rebars causing a potential for injury or trip hazard.

And while the use of a rebar protector isn’t new, the material composition of existing rebar mushroom caps and their likeliness of becoming contaminated with concrete means they can’t be recycled and therefore don’t meet sustainable standards of construction today.

Shaun Bushnell, Managing Director at Selkent explains the thinking behind the development process:

“Rebar Buddy is a great example of how incremental improvements can be made to existing components, when you apply careful attention and some up-to-date, expert knowledge.

“Rebar end caps, or mushrooms, have been used for years, and do a job, but with some drawbacks.

They suffer from frequent wear and tear by being taken on and off the rebar and can become loose and often be blown off by moderate winds. With large sites sometimes having thousands of protruding ends, using a more flexible and sustainable material just made sense.”

Rebar Buddy is constructed from a PTE thermoplastic elastomer that is perfectly suited to its application. Combined with a smart 3D design, the material offers a stiff elasticity which endures with repeated use, delivering a strong grip while allowing easy application. The addition of a linear version, where each piece covers multiple rebar protrusions, allows far quicker application saving valuable time. Crucially, these designs also have the toughness and durability to offer the physical protection required and last much longer than existing products.

Rebar Buddy products are also fully recyclable, this combines with their reusability to offer impressive sustainability performance. It was this that led to the product being recognised by the Environment & Sustainability Award at the 2023 CONSTRUCT Day Awards. UK Port Sustainability awards also.

Shaun continue: “In the grand scheme of a construction project the impact of a relatively small amount of plastic waste didn’t used to come up on the project manager’s radar, but that has changed. Now, the industry recognises that we need to move to cradle-to-cradle solutions wherever we can, and Rebar Buddy offers that opportunity”.

You can find out more about Rebar Buddy here