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Coltman Precast Concrete is maintaining its commitment to improving health and safety levels by taking part in construction industry technical seminars around the UK, and introducing a new Health & Safety Bulletin.

The company's Health & Safety Manager, Mick Thurman, gave presentations at seminars staged by the Precast Flooring Federation (PFF), entitled 'Concrete Floors By Design', held at Wembley Stadium and Birmingham City FC towards the end of 2008.

Mr Thurman, who is Chairman of the PFF's Health & Safety Committee, informed delegates about the Federation's new Code Of Practice For The Safe Erection Of Precast Flooring, and the new National Precast Flooring Training Scheme.

In December, he spoke to the Construction Health & Safety Group, whose members represent the major construction companies in the London area, at a seminar held at the Group's headquarters in Chertsey. His presentation covered the protection of operatives from falls while working on trailers.

Coltman has also issued a Health & Safety Bulletin. This contains items on the company's planning, design and installation services, outlines the qualifications of its site installation teams, and gives details of the company's numerous safety, quality and environmental accreditations.

Mr Thurman said: “As a company we are recognised for our strong commitment to the safety of all our personnel and also to the improvement of health and safety standards throughout the industry in general. This is why we have been asked to give presentations on safety issues at major industry events. Publishing our new Health & Safety Bulletin is another way we can help get the safety message across.”

Last year Coltman received a supply chain health & safety award from Mansell Construction Services, a member of the Balfour Beatty Group Ltd. The award recognised Coltman's consistent excellence in health and safety processes and practices.

The company was also one of the first in its sector to introduce the Airtek TruckMat inflatable safety system. The inflatable mattress system is used when unloading products from delivery vehicles on site and provides a safe landing area around the vehicle for employees should they fall.

Established in 1972, Coltman is one of the UK's largest independent manufacturers of structural precast concrete products,

Its product range includes prestressed hollowcore wide slab and solid prestressed wide slab for flooring and roofing. Bespoke staircases, landings, balconies, terracing and wall units are also available.

Coltman produces in excess of 250,000 square metres of prestressed hollowcore flooring and 4,000 cubic metres of bespoke concrete products each year at its centrally located West Midlands site.

Customers include some of the leading names in architecture, construction, civil engineering, house building and property development.

Coltman provides a complete supply and fix service, from initial design through to installation by its own CITB trained site teams, fully compliant with all the appropriate regulations, including CDM, and utilising the very latest safety equipment and procedures.

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The AMTECH Office Domestic software suite has been recognised as Electrical Software Product of the Year at the Electrical Industry Awards 2007.

The judges commented: “We felt Office Domestic would provide excellent functionality and offered both design and certification potential. The fact that the software can be carried on a number of hardware systems was also a great plus in our eyes.”

Developed specifically for electrical contractors specialising in domestic work, AMTECH Office Domestic provides everything they need in one powerful yet affordable package, including electrical design, cable sizing and Test & Inspection certification.

“Rather than expecting domestic contractors to pay for features that they’ll never use, we developed this suite to address their day to day requirements at a very competitive price,” explained AMTECH Sales Director James Cooper. “As well as helping them use the latest technologies to keep up with the growing legislative burden, we believe this software encourages safer designs, accurate calculations and effective reporting – all contributing to improved safety in the home,” he added.

Using AMTECH Office Domestic, single phase installations consisting of up to 3 boards to BS 7671 can be designed quickly using a series of simple tabbed input screens. Cables and protective devices can be selected from a large database contained in the program. The Quick results view makes diagnosing problems in the design easy and changes to the design can be made at the click of a mouse. A range of reports including: circuit charts, cable calculations, consumer unit schedules etc are included.

After the work has been completed the software will produce Test & Inspection certificates that meet the requirements of Part P. These are suitable for use with all major accreditation bodies. In addition to producing professional looking certificates, all the test information and customer information is held in a database for future reference. A mobile version for use on a Pocket PC is included to enable contractors to produce certificates on site.

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An independent assessment has found that the environmental award-winning building products manufacturer, Hambleside Danelaw, slashed its carbon footprint by over 20% during 2007.

The highly respected consultancy, dcarbon8, measured the carbon footprint of the company’s two factories at Daventry and Inverness which manufacture roofing and ventilation products and it calculated that the total footprint for both sites had fallen from 887 to 698 tonnes CO2e. Total carbon footprint per employee, which takes into account commuting to and from work, also decreased.

By far the largest sources of emissions were energy for the factories and travel, although the assessment report acknowledges that the location of one of Hambleside’s factories in the Scottish Highlands offers a real challenge in terms of securing fewer emissions in relation to transportation. To tackle energy-associated emissions which fell at both facilities, the company has switched its electricity supplier to the Inverness factory to one that uses renewable energy sources.

Regarded as a sector market leader in recycling, Hambleside Danelaw has made significant progress in reducing waste from its manufacturing processes. Emissions associated with waste were a relatively small 22 tonnes CO2e in 2007.

The Group is working closely with dcarbon8’s experts to constantly source further improvements in sustainability performance. As a result of its efforts, it has gained Planet Positive certification which signifies that a business is making annual reductions to its carbon footprint and is offsetting the remainder by 110%.

Commenting on the assessment’s findings, Hambleside’s vice-chairman Robin Jeffery said: “It is very encouraging to show specifiers and clients independent evidence that our environmental initiatives are paying off. As a continuation of our efforts, we are currently making great progress on recycling waste GRP and we expect to make further announcements in the run-up to our exhibiting at Ecobuild next March.”

Hambleside products selected for Sustainable Building Centre

Hambleside Danelaw is proud to announce that its underfloor ventilator and airbricks range have been used at the £3.2 million Wolseley Sustainable Building Centre at Leamington Spa, the UK’s first commercial showcase for sustainable products and construction methods.

The Group has also extended its warmest congratulations to dcarbon8 as the winner of Best Micro-Organization, one of the three ‘grand prix’ awards for the UK Green Business Awards. dcarbon8 also received a special commendation in the Best Business Services Company category.

The expert judge panel paid particular credit to dcarbon8’s expertise in the built environment. As a specialist in this emerging field, dcarbon8 has recently been commissioned to carry out carbon management for Masdar City, Ebbsfleet Valley of the Thames Gateway with Land Securities, and a series of key developments in the Victoria Harbour area of Sydney, Australia with Lend Lease.

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A new software development from Vixensoft is helping property maintenance contractors transform their planned and responsive repairs services and reduce costs.

Avixsys is a work scheduling and mobile solution designed for electrical and gas maintenance providers of all sizes. The solution’s industry-specific functionality sets it apart from other service management products.

Nathan Hawker of AP Chant, West Dorset’s biggest privately-owned plumbing, heating and electrical specialist, comments, “Avixsys has made a real difference to the way we work. It’s helped us modernise and improve our operation and made our entire service more attractive – the web access option in particular has been a major bonus for our clients”.

Avixsys utilises the latest mobile technology to speed communication, doing away with phone calls. The solution displays engineer locations and job progress in real-time, allowing work to be allocated with ultimate efficiency and fuel wastage to be minimised.

Social Housing clients can log jobs directly and receive KPI reports, including No Access and SLA data, while engineers receive full job details, helping to improve first fix rates. On site, electronic forms required for Part P and Part L can be completed on a PDA and instantly returned signed to the office, along with the completed job details.

Functionality can be extended to include e-Van Stocks to automate the restocking of vans; e- Timesheets to record and post on and off site times for payroll and job costing and Remote Purchase Order Requisitions for on-site purchase ordering via PDA.

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A wide selection of Mapei’s top performance products has been used for the recent refurbishment of the Kingsway Centre. The Colman Partnership were the architects for the project, which is part of the major regeneration of Newport, South Wales and BAM Construction, which has offices in Cardiff, was the main contractor.

Prior to the installation of the floor tiles, Mapei’s Primer G, a water-based synthetic resin primer, was used to treat the surfaces. Ultraplan Maxi, an ultra-fast hardening, water-mixed self-levelling and smoothing compound was used before the installation. This levelling compound is ideal for differences between 3 to 30mm, is suitable for many different surface materials and has an excellent resistance to loads and traffic.

All shapes and sizes of tiles were fixed using Mapei Granirapid, 2-part rapid set flexible adhesive with extraordinary bonding and fast setting properties. Granirapid is especially suited to the installation of stone material, which requires a rapid drying adhesive; it is ideal for areas subject to heavy traffic and those, which need accessing quickly.

The 3-4mm tiles joints were grouted with Mapei Ultracolor Plus 114, Anthracite, a fast setting and drying grout, which is available in 26 colours to meet all requirements. This flexible, mould and water repellent, anti-efflorescence grout, is suitable for heavy duty areas, wet areas, including power showers, timber substrates and underfloor heating. Ultracolor Plus can be used both internally and externally, on walls and floors.

The refurbishment of the centre, involved bonding tiles to an existing terrazzo floor. Tiling contractors, J H Lidstone of Plymouth, installed a variety of materials supplied by Domus Tiles including, DIG15 Satin Finish Porcelain Stone Floor Tiles, DIG16 Satin Finish Porcelain Stone Border Tiles, as well as tiles from the Domus Structurestone Range.

Mapei is the world’s largest manufacturer of adhesives, sealants and chemical products for building. With over 70 years experience, Mapei is a specialist in the production of quality products for the installation of all types of wall and floor coverings, and has a vast range of admixtures and repair products for concrete and building materials.

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The Weatherite Group of Companies has worked together on a major contract to replace the heating/ventilation system at Waitrose, Frimley which is part of the supermarket division of the John Lewis Partnership. Weatherite’s complete solution included new features that have met all the design criteria to improve customer comfort and the working environment of partners.

The contract is part of a national programme of Waitrose store upgrades by the John Lewis Partnership. Weatherite won the contract following a recent Weatherite Building Services contract for the JLP R22 replacement programme and the success of Weatherite Manufacturing in supplying high energy efficient Air Handling Units to Waitrose.

Weatherite designed the system in conjunction with PSH Consulting Ltd, the JLP’s nominated consultant. The work included the supply and installation of two new air handling units made by Weatherite Manufacturing, together with ducting, fan units, wiring and a new control and electrical power panel. In a separate contract, Weatherite also provided and fitted steel support frames for the AHUs.

The project incorporated a number of beneficial design features that are new for JLP and Waitrose. A return air system has been fitted above the dry goods zone to induce air movement across the store, improve comfort conditions and increase the energy efficiency of the operating plant. The existing ceiling void fan heater units were relocated and new temperature sensors installed to give better temperature control across the dry goods zone. Weatherite also replaced entrance door heaters with new high efficiency models to reduce any draughts in the checkout area.

Weatherite also overcame a number of challenges as all the work had to be carried out after store operating hours from 8pm to 6am.

“WEATHERITE GROUP-THE ONE STOP FOR AIR HANDLING EXPERTISE”

Weatherite Manufacturing Ltd is one of the UK’s leading air conditioning and air handling equipment manufacturers.

Weatherite Building Services Ltd has expertise in all aspects of building services including heating, ventilation, boiler house refurbishment, water, control systems and electrics as well as all aspects of commercial air conditioning systems, offering a single source choice to its customers which includes full project management, design, installation and commissioning capabilities.

Weatherite Service & Maintenance Ltd specialise in the service and maintenance of all aspects of heating, ventilation, refrigeration and air conditioning.

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The Dorman Smith Modis 25 modular distribution switchboards and associated devices is now available in a new version featuring a 3200 Amps rating. The innovative and cost-effective Modis concept combines an effective and compact switchboard system with a space-saving, high stacking density and provides a complete solution for almost all practical switchboard system applications.

Benefiting from its modular design and construction, Modis switchboard systems are extendable and easily modified, ASTA certified, fully type-tested in accordance with EN60439-1:1999 and include Form 4b Type 2 or Type 6, as standard. Horizontal busbars from 1250A up to 3200A are available as well as a wide range of busbar fault withstand options up to 80kA for 1 second.

The ?pallet to Power Room? slogan is another highlight of the self-assembly Modis switchboard range. Reverse-packed into a series of ?collared boxes? and shipped as a flat-pack kit on a pallet, each switchboard can be quickly and easily assembled with the help of a comprehensive build documentation.

Modis switchboard systems integrate world-class components from Tyco Electronics? product portfolio. These include Dorman Smith circuit breakers and fuse combination units, Crompton Instruments metering instrumentation and Bowthorpe EMP surge suppression units. Third-party equipment, for example capacitors for power factor correction, can also be accommodated.

With a strong emphasis on quality and design, Modis switchboards have found acceptance in numerous prestigious local and global contracts.

Tyco Electronics, the TE logo, Bowthorpe EMP and Dorman Smith are trademarks. Crompton is a trademark of Crompton Parkinson Ltd., and used by Tyco Electronics under licence.

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Every manager knows that you need to be able to measure a resource to manage it effectively and Thermal – Hot or Chilled water Energy is no different. Thermal Energy in the form of hot or chilled water is a major form of energy consumption in building services and the first step in controlling and managing it is to identify what is being used and where!

There is no simpler way than using one of Micronics Portaflow, Clamp-On range of portable Thermal Energy meters with integral loggers, which are acknowledged as the easiest to use in their class. Simple to apply and simple to use, a straightforward question and answer menu provides the facility to collect valuable information with the minimum of fuss or previous knowledge and minimum instruction. And when the energy information has been gathered it can be viewed on the instrument or downloaded for further analysis using industry standard formats.

Time is money and the quick to install, Clamp-On, non-invasive Portaflow with simple menu driven operation provides a valuable return in information for a minimum investment in your valuable time.

Clamp-On Alternative to Expensive In-line meter installations!

And when you’ve completed your initial survey/audit Fixed Clamp-On meters are also a cost-effective solution for ongoing metering – Kings College – London heats its campus sites via a number of boiler houses, generating thermal energy for distribution to individual buildings via LTHW (Low Temperature Hot Water) networks.

A pilot system of meters was initially installed to facilitate their management as Energy Cost Centres and provide information for Building Energy Labelling in line with European Directives. The UF2000HM's are used to meter the individual thermal energy consumption of each building within a cluster being fed from a LTHW Energy Centre or central Boiler House

The new meter installations, which represented circa 10% of the university were initially manually read and have the facility to be automatically read via the university's BEMs system, to provide continuously updated information for Monitoring and Targeting including benchmark comparisons with energy consumption norms for the university sector.

Having considered various measurement alternatives Clamp-On Ultrasonic meters were selected due to the installation and maintenance/service benefits associated with the non-invasive technology including low cost and minimum disruption installation and maintenance. Micronics were selected as the supplier due to a combination of their long-term experience with Ultrasonic Clamp-On technology, competitive pricing and product performance i.e. best value!

This and many similar projects demonstrate the scope for Clamp-On metering technology and the opportunity for replication and contribution to good energy management in similar schemes across the UK should be extensive.

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