FenzFoot GmbH

Mobile fence protection rethought and made safer - the patented FenzFoot made of recycled plastic

For many years now, reports of accidents with personal injury and property damage caused by fallen construction fences have been coming in with increasing frequency. Stakeholders and industry experts complain about the current standard of traffic and construction site protection.

However, the cause of this is not the fence elements themselves, but the generally established concrete feet, which are structurally unable to withstand the wind loads during storms and tempests.

This situation confronted the FenzFoot team from Stuttgart with a completely unacceptable actual situation. Subsequent research showed that the real problem was neither the ignorance of the building owners nor the legal toleration of the risk, but the factually non-existent alternative to the outdated fence feet. Based on the experiences made, the weak points of the previous fence construction were analysed and compiled by means of improvement approaches in a completely new construction form.

In the end, a completely new type of construction fence base was developed for securing construction sites, traffic and events. From the very beginning, the focus of the project has been on providing a particularly safe, but also sustainable solution. The patented hollow body of Fenzfoot GmbH consists of 5 mm thick recycled polypropylene with additional sleeves for four ground screws. The FenzeFoot has a filling volume of approx. 65 litres and a net weight of 6 kg. It can be filled with water (full weight approx. 71 kg) or with quartz sand (approx. 105 kg) via an opening on the top.

To speed up this process, a mobile service station with integrated vacuum compressor/vacuum cleaner is offered, allowing the body to be filled/emptied within approx. 80 seconds. The innovative construction form, with its extended height of approx. 40 cm, literally anchors the fence in the base element and offers the entire structure considerably more stability.

In combination with the high weight of the foot, even very strong wind loads no longer pose a danger. A simulation in the wind tunnel has shown that a fence structure with concrete feet, each weighing 25 kg, begins to topple at a wind speed of approx. 55 km/h. With the water-filled FenzFoot, the fence structure can withstand wind speeds of up to approx. 75 km/h, and when filled with sand, it can even withstand wind loads of over 100 km/h. In addition, there is the option of anchoring in the ground using custom-made ground screws to provide additional support in the case of special ground conditions and demanding local weather conditions. The low (empty) weight also saves transport costs and protects the erectors by reducing their physical burden. The FenzFoot also scores points against the high wear and tear of concrete feet thanks to its durable and resilient plastic construction, because in addition to safety, sustainability is above all the focus of the developers.

Although the new safety element is made of 100% recycled plastics, such as old beverage crates, the injection-moulded element meets the very highest quality standards. In case of expected wear, however, it can easily be returned to the recycling cycle. The 4-5 concrete elements and various support brackets that were previously required for safe construction can now be replaced by a single FenzFoot. Last but not least, the customer can expect a significant gain in efficiency.