ENGRail, the first GRP handrail independently verified to Public Assembly loading, takes the award in Birmingham
Engineered Composites Ltd (ECL), the Chester-based specialist manufacturer and supplier of glass reinforced plastic (GRP) products, has won the Innovation in Composite Design award at the Composites UK Industry Awards 2026. The winners were announced at the Industry Awards Dinner held at the National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham, on 4 November 2026, alongside the Advanced Engineering Show.
The award recognises ENGRail, ECL’s 51mm box section modular GRP handrail system and the first GRP handrail independently verified to Public Assembly loading. For decades, conventional round tube GRP handrails could not reach the loads required for crowd and Public Assembly environments, so specifiers who needed that classification had little option but to fall back on steel and accept the corrosion, painting and electrical isolation that comes with it.
ENGRail was designed to remove that limitation. By moving from round tube to a precision pultruded 51mm box section profile, the system was independently tested by Commercial Standard Testing Lab, Burton, in January 2026 to BS EN 1991-1-1 Public Assembly loading using BS 6180:2011 methodology. It achieved 1.657 kN/m at 25mm deflection and an ultimate capacity of 7.159 kN/m, a safety factor of 4.77 over the Public Assembly requirement, with 100% elastic recovery and no permanent deformation.
Because the system is GRP, it is also non-conductive, corrosion-free and maintenance-free over a 50-plus year design life, weighing a fraction of an equivalent steel installation. That combination has opened up applications across rail, utilities, construction and public infrastructure where steel has historically been the default specification.
“Winning this award means a great deal to everyone at Engineered Composites. ENGRail started with a simple question: why should engineers have to choose between the benefits of GRP and the loading performance they need for public spaces? Our team answered that through design, and the independent test data proves it. To be recognised by Composites UK and our peers across the industry is a proud moment for a UK manufacturer, and we are grateful to the judges and to everyone who supported the entry.”
Gavin Williams, Managing Director, Engineered Composites Ltd
The win follows a strong year for the system, which was also named a finalist at the 2026 National Rail Awards. ENGRail is available now with next-day UK delivery, supplied in safety yellow RAL 1023 as standard, and is supported by ECL’s RISQS accreditation, JOSCAR registration and ISO 9001:2015 certified quality management.
Further information on ENGRail, including the full test data, is available at Here.
Website: engineered-composites.co.uk