Aerial view of a brick works with long kiln and drying sheds, smoke rising from the exhaust stack

Engineering design · Product development · Project delivery

From first idea to a product that gets built.

Rowe Design & Consulting takes products, plant and buildings from concept to completion. Patented and patent-pending (GB 2612884.3) power products, low-carbon industrial kiln plant, a 14-home residential development and farm infrastructure: designed, engineered, built and commissioned, led by one designer with engineering and multi-discipline experience.

Discuss a project See completed work

Above: RVSBK clay brick kiln plant, South Africa. Aerial footage from the client's project film.

35+years in engineering, construction and product innovation
3patent filings: two UK granted for Rotasoc (now lapsed), one pending for Eclipse (GB 2612884.3)
>60%kiln fuel saving on the RVSBK plants
R25mresidential development delivered, Jeffreys Bay

Capabilities

Concept to commissioning, under one roof

You work directly with the designer doing the work, from feasibility study and 3D design through to site, supply chain and handover.

PRODUCT

Product development and design for manufacture

Concept development, prototyping and production engineering for products that can be made reliably and at the right unit cost.

Hands-on experience working directly with manufacturers and component suppliers, taking parts from design through tooling and into production. Suppliers include Essex Injection Mouldings and European Springs & Pressings (ESP), who made the copper tooling and parts for Rotasoc, along with laser cutting and bending suppliers.

  • DFM
  • Prototyping
  • Injection moulding
  • Tooling
  • Copper parts
  • Laser cutting and bending
  • Supplier liaison
IP

Inventions, patents and licensing

Inventor of Rotasoc, taken from first sketch to licensed production, and of Eclipse, now patent pending (GB 2612884.3) and open to licensing. Both were developed from drawings and specifications through to working prototypes, with patent attorneys handling the filings.

  • Two patents granted (now lapsed), one pending (GB 2612884.3)
  • Technical drawings and specifications
  • Prototype evidence
  • Working alongside patent attorneys
POWER

Electrical and power distribution

Power distribution systems and support chassis designed to BS 7671 and BS 6396 for office furniture manufacturers worldwide, including the banking sector. Eclipse adds IPDU smart monitoring for data-heavy workplaces.

  • Office furniture power
  • Support chassis
  • Banking sector
  • Designed to BS 7671 · BS 6396
  • Monitoring
ANALYSIS

Engineering analysis and digital prototyping

3D parametric modelling, CFD studies, thermal imaging and cost-benefit analysis to prove a design before money is spent on site.

  • CFD
  • 3D CAD
  • Feasibility
  • CBA / ROI
PLANT

Industrial plant, process and controls

Process plant design, factory layout, fabrication, SCADA control and commissioning, with operator training and manuals.

  • SCADA
  • Factory layout
  • Commissioning
  • O&M manuals
BUILD

Construction and project management

Residential development, civils, water and irrigation infrastructure, managed from design coordination to final handover.

  • Project management
  • Civils
  • Value engineering
  • Refurbishment
  • Sustainable build

Inventions · Power distribution

Patented and patent-pending power products

Two generations of rotating socket technology: Rotasoc, still in production more than 20 years on, and Eclipse, the patent-pending system (GB 2612884.3) now open to licensing.

Patent pending GB 2612884.3

Eclipse power distribution system

The next generation of rotating power delivery. Eclipse can meet the modern demands of data centres, lighting track, trading and laboratory workstations, and office furniture. It is fed directly by cable instead of busbars and accommodates the latest production techniques.

  • UK patent application GB 2612884.3 filed 2026
  • Applications in floor, desk and furniture power, with UK, international and connector variants
  • IPDU smart monitoring for voltage, current, power, temperature and auxiliary sensor inputs

Available to license by territory or sector.

Enquire about licensing

Product inventionUK1997 to 2003

Rotasoc modular power system

A modular under-desk power system whose sockets rotate through 360° under load, so plugs and adaptors fit at any angle. Internal busbars replace wiring inside the socket modules. Jez was inventor and lead designer, and took it from concept to a market-ready product with Indes Design, then set up a company for sales and assembly.

  • Two UK patents granted: GB2330700B and GB2330955B (now lapsed)
  • More than £650,000 invested in design, development and tooling
  • Originally manufactured under licence by Electrak; now manufactured and distributed by CMD Ltd, part of Luceco plc
  • Awards: Society of Plastics Engineers consumer product award (Dallas, Texas), PRW Awards for Excellence, and FX Design Award 2001

Still manufactured and specified in UK workplaces more than 20 years after launch, and a leading rotating socket system in its market.

Rheebok Bricks RVSBK plant in operation. Film: Jenya Zhivaleva Photography
Clients
Rheebok Bricks (Groot-Brakrivier), Langkloof Bricks (Jeffreys Bay) and Eston Brick (KwaZulu-Natal)
Funding
Pilot partly funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation through Swisscontact
Role
Kiln designer, project manager and constructor; SCADA and fuelling software
Period
2011 to 2018, across three sites
Engineers
Design ratified by FBS Consulting Engineers, Durbanville, Cape Town

Featured project · Industrial plant · South Africa

RVSBK: a low-carbon brick kiln plant, designed and built

Clay brick makers in South Africa faced rising fuel costs and a coming carbon tax. Starting from a six-shaft pilot vertical shaft brick kiln (VSBK) at Langkloof Bricks, Jez redesigned the technology into the modular MKIII RVSBK: a recirculation kiln with off-site manufactured assemblies, centralised hydraulics and automatic fuel logging for carbon-credit and ISO reporting.

Between 2011 and 2018, across three sites, Rowe Group fabricated the components, built the kiln halls, stacks and extraction systems, and commissioned the plant with SCADA monitoring of every shaft. The design was ratified by FBS Consulting Engineers, verified with CFD before construction and checked with thermal imaging after it.

>60%fuel saving achieved on the RVSBK kilns
≤30%lower construction and ownership cost
<3%fired wastage, down from over 10%
24 hturnaround from dried to fired product

Watch the full film on Swisscontact's YouTube channel

Free download

RVSBK Manual, 2018 edition

The full operating manual for the RVSBK kiln: firing principles, start-up and loading procedures, the kiln management system, operation and maintenance, quality, troubleshooting, and health and safety.

  • 126 pages, PDF
  • Download link sent to your email, valid for 7 days

Engineering analysis

Proved in software before it was built in brick and steel

The MKIII kiln was developed as a digital prototype. Airflow through the shaft, plenum and refractory ring was modelled with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to set the geometry, the brick setting pattern and the fan duty points before construction started.

Kiln section and region of interest
Velocity magnitude at the refractory ring
Airflow through brick perforations
456-pattern brick batch model
Vertical velocity in the shaft gap

What the study changed

  • Plenum walls set flush with the brick faces and the shaft-to-brick gap reduced, giving a much more even air distribution through the batches.
  • Brick setting patterns compared: the expanded 456 pattern distributed air better than the standard pattern; the condensed pattern was rejected.
  • A method for sizing the plenum induction and refractory-ring extraction fans, so blowers were specified to calculated duty points.
  • An earlier flue-gas extraction model (2013) set the extraction pressure drop and manifold layout.

CFD analysis was carried out for Rowe Design and Consulting by Esoteric Engineering Solutions (Prof. C.J. Meyer, 2015), building on flue-gas modelling by Aerotherm (2013). The results fed straight into the 3D factory model, bills of materials and construction drawings, and the RVSBK design was ratified by FBS Consulting Engineers of Durbanville, Cape Town.

The same digital-prototyping approach lets a client walk through their own plant before it is built, check material quantities and operating costs, and make design decisions with real numbers.

CFDAutodesk InventorFactory Design SuiteNavisworksAutoCADThermal imagingFuel cost modelling

Selected projects

Products, buildings and infrastructure, delivered

Residential developmentJeffreys Bay, South Africa2008 onwards

Bethel Cove secure residential estate

A gated development of fourteen freehold homes within the Sands Estate, a new area of more than 600 houses. Seven single-storey and seven double-storey homes from 150 to nearly 200 m², designed with Erik Voigt Architects in a Cape Cod style.

  • Developer, project manager and main contractor, with a senior partner
  • Design coordination and management of all suppliers and subcontractors
  • Perimeter detection, monitored alarms and automated garage access
  • Solar water heating, cellulose insulation and underfloor heating
  • Snag list cleared before handover to buyers

R25 million development carried through the 2008 financial crisis: homes were let until the market recovered, then the estate was completed.

“One of the finest developments I have seen in a long time. The finishes and the workmanship surpass anything I have seen.”

Jeanette Hall, Huizemark estate agency, Jeffreys Bay, on the first home sold
“Thank you very much Jez and Sherene for creating this wonderful space we can call home.”
The Bethel Cove Community

Hospitality refurbishmentSteytlerville, Eastern Cape

Royal Karoo Safari Lodge

A Victorian-style boutique safari lodge where the Great Karoo meets the Valley Bushveld. Jez worked on several aspects of its refurbishment, one of numerous refurbishment projects he has carried out across South Africa.

  • Design and installation of a cantilevered timber staircase with frameless glass balustrade into a new cellar room
  • Cellar floor levels, base plates and grouting set out on the drawings
  • Hands-on installation on site

Watch the lodge video on Facebook

Machine designPort Elizabeth for VB Manufacturing (UK)2006 to 2007

VB36ER woodturning lathe

A design upgrade of the VB36 professional woodturning lathe for VB Manufacturing. The new design can be retrofitted to machines already in service.

  • New drive train and industrial control panel
  • Totally wireless remote control using a rolling-code protocol, removing trailing cables from the work area
  • New 2.0 m bed with a repositionable tool-rest assembly
  • Full design report, specifications, costing and drawings

Agricultural infrastructureLoerie, Eastern Cape2008 to 2025

Compass Farm: a working farm built from bare land

Developed a 6 ha site into a macadamia farm, designing and building the water, civil and irrigation infrastructure from scratch.

  • Nearly 2,000 macadamia trees planted
  • Boreholes, dam, land drainage and water storage
  • Irrigation and fertigation system design and installation
  • Civils for 600 m² of greenhouses, site sewerage design, and foundations for a new double-storey home

Published and recognised

Work others have written about

2014
Engineering NewsNew vertical shaft brick kiln to improve Langkloof Bricks' energy efficiency, with Rowe Design and Consulting.
2013
Autodesk customer success storyRowe Group's kiln redesign with Autodesk Factory Design Suite: up to 50% less coal and 30% lower construction cost.
2013
Clay Brick Association, VSBK News50th anniversary edition: "South African VSBK design goes industrial", on the MKIII design and its CFD testing.
2013–14
TT100 award, The DaVinci InstituteSouth Africa's TT100 award for the management of technology, innovation, people and systems.
Launch
Building magazine"Working the angles": the launch of Rotasoc, the brainchild of Jez Rowe.
Today
CMD Ltd (Luceco): RotasocThe Rotasoc modular power system, manufactured and distributed today by CMD, part of Luceco plc.
2015
Speaking, NepalSustainable construction methods and carbon reduction in building.
2015
Speaking, NMMU, Port ElizabethPresented the RVSBK kiln technology at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), now Nelson Mandela University.
2001
Rotasoc design awardsSociety of Plastics Engineers consumer product award (Dallas, Texas), PRW Awards for Excellence, and the FX Design Award.

How a project runs

Four stages, one point of contact

Projects can start at any stage. Many start with a sketch and a phone call.

01

Define

Talk through the problem, the market and what already exists. Feasibility, budget and a clear brief.

02

Prove

Concept design, 3D modelling, calculations, CFD where it matters, and prototypes that show it works.

03

Document

Drawings, specifications and prototype evidence, plus the cost-benefit case.

04

Deliver

Design for manufacture, procurement, construction, commissioning and handover.

Founder
Jez Rowe
Experience
35+ years in engineering, construction and product innovation
Patents
Two UK patents granted (Rotasoc, now lapsed). Eclipse patent pending (GB 2612884.3).
Worked in
UK and South Africa; spoken in Nepal
Based
Near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

About

A multi-discipline designer who builds what he designs

Jez Rowe has spent more than 35 years designing, building and commissioning: electrical products used in offices across the UK, power distribution systems and support chassis for office furniture manufacturers worldwide, including the banking sector, low-carbon kiln plant for South African brick makers, a residential estate in Jeffreys Bay and a farm built from bare land.

That range means he understands a project from the first sketch to the factory floor or the finished building: how an idea is protected, how a product is made and proven, how a site is run, and what it takes to hand over something that works.

Rowe Design & Consulting brings that experience to manufacturers, developers and plant owners who need a design or engineering problem solved.

Contact

Tell me about your project

Call or email with a short description of what you are working on: a product idea, a plant upgrade or a build.

T+44 (0) 7999 209921
Ejez@rowe-design.co.uk
inlinkedin.com/in/jez-rowe