CArapace Slate Modular rOofing System (CASMOS)

Welsh slate, and Natural slate, is a highly desirable and premium product in domestic housing markets across the world. Installed well, by a skilled craftsman it is a beautiful addition to almost any house. However, resource and skills shortages across the globe have led to challenges in its ongoing use in the house building and renovation markets. Carapace is a new and innovative roofing solution that utilises waste slate material from local sources to produce a modular, composite roofing tile that can be installed in a fraction of the time of a tradition slate tile. Our innovation uses a unique interlocking system that allows the user to simply clip the tiles together to form a safe and secure slate roof installation. Our system will reduce the time taken to install a slate tile roof by up to 90%; we have demonstrated that installation of 1sqm of Carapace is possible in just 1 minute. This project will develop a SMaRT and future proof manufacturing process to produce the Carapace roofing system on a commercial scale, enabling our innovative product to become publically available on a large scale for the first time.