Scaffloat is a small company in Cornwall that has struck upon a brilliant idea, pontoons made from scaffolding.
They use a small number of basic components to form large, heavy-duty pontoons and floating work platforms. An aluminium lattice beam, various cross connectors, railings and couplers that use commonly available scaffolding fixtures, scaffolding boards for the deck, and finally, a plastic float.
Modular pontoons are not new, but they are mostly designed for relatively light-duty applications and have a small height (and thus buoyancy).
Conventional pontoons (like Mexeflotes) are very heavy-duty but are unwieldy.
Scaffloat sits somewhere in between.
One could certainly see these being used for port engineering tasks, EOD and MCM support.
It might even be possible to use them as low-cost bridging pontoons, built on demand from a kit of parts held at readiness.
The same company has also developed the Workfloat using the same basic approach. The workboat has a couple of unique features, it can fold for easy towing, and fits inside a standard 40ft ISO container.
Watch this great video.
These have great potential, again, in support of general engineering tasks and as a mobile bridging pontoon.
More fantastic British engineering and ingenuity
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