Thomas Bell-Wright: Third party quality assurance

Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants (TBWIC) is a Dubai-based, multi-accredited, privately held engineering firm providing independent Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) services primarily for the building construction sector. The company is focused on large commercial buildings. "We provide a range of TIC services for building architectural elements, as well as for fire separation and material safety. Along with becoming a successful Product Certification body in the region, our services of small and large-scale testing, including for cladding, are being sought in the more established developed world as well," says Thomas F. Bell-Wright, the CEO and Chief Technical Officer at TBWIC, in an interview with Khaleej Times.
He speaks about the company's role in fire safety and protection. "In the same way that we pioneered weather-tightness testing for building envelope/curtain wall systems; we were the first ones in the region to set up fire testing for fire rated doors and partitions about a decade ago. We continue to expand the number of fire tests to meet the needs of suppliers, contractors and consultants in meeting the requirements of the building codes. It's all about making our society safer."
In the last few years, TBWIC has added a number of tests that help to test the fire safety of cladding materials and systems. This includes the Large-Scale Fire Propagation Test for cladding as per the American testing standard NFPA 285, as well as British Standards (BS 8414). "We also have several small-scale tests used to check materials used for cladding and interior finishing. These tests have also been helping building owners recently investigate the fire risk of their existing building materials quickly and inexpensively," Bell-Wright explains.
Stressing on the importance of the UAE market for the company, he says, "We are born in the UAE, and our primary aim has been to support the country's construction industry. Our local presence has supported a very large number of local manufacturers develop their products to international standards. We are now taking UAE's name out not only to the MENA region but also across Europe and the Asia Pacific."
As for the future, TBWIC has recently invested in expanding its testing capabilities by a considerable amount. "We pride ourselves in providing testing reports and certification with an urgency previously unknown in the fire testing world. We think this is crucial to doing business in the UAE but we are also finding it attractive abroad, and we, therefore, plan to develop our testing in the more established markets on this basis," he notes.
Bell-Wright adds, "We recently launched our product certification programme and the certification mark is designed to reflect the iconography of our adopted home. The falcon is designed in Arabic calligraphy to say mutamad, which means "certified". We particularly like this design and have had a great response from our clients."