Business and Industry Today Issue 381

Sustainability Today

See pages ST I-VIII

Innovation through digital transformation in the construction industry

The future is catching up with construction companies and success will depend on smart work process management solutions.

As Alexandru Radu, Head of Business Growth at Arggo (pictured), explains, the construction industry needs special attention from developers of business digital solutions, such as Timeqode Construction Sites.

The use of this platform by those involved provides a real-time picture of the activities and resources on the construction sites.

The key advantages of using a construction site application

The first benefit of such a solution is to save time through process digitisation, helping construction companies achieve their digital transformation goals quickly and cost-effectively, without constraints for heavy initial investment or extensive programming skills.

All active construction sites can be managed at the same time, and activities can be tracked at the site, supervisor or location level.

A digital solution helps, manages and monitors the daily and weekly activities of workers, on an individual level or even on a team level, so task management can be integrated with email and WhatsApp.

A construction site solution could be

Great success for the International Conferences, gathering Seeley partners from all over EMENA

Time to gather again! After the Pandemic, Seeley International partners are back together for the recurring International Conference, reaching the seventh edition this year.

This unique meeting is only opened to Seeley valued distributors & constant partners. The main aim is to spend some days together to benefit of networking, sharing experiences, visions and strategies.

In 2021, we have only been able to gather online, whereas this year, we really wished to make it accessible for all our partners to celebrate our 50th anniversary. In fact, we have organised not one but two International Conferences! The first one took place in Dubai from 13th to 15th March, mainly for Middle East and Asia Pacific partners; the second was organised in Bologna (22nd–23rd March), gathering distributors from all over Europe.

built using a low-code platform such as Timeqode.

A low-code platform, it does not require programming knowledge. It allows both the digital team and the customer to create applications from any business flow, regardless of its complexity. The processes are easy to implement and manage, resulting in user-friendly applications that can be used from any type of device. office@arggo.com https://arggo.com

This year, to make it very special, our Founder and Executive Chairman Frank Seeley AM, DUniv Flin, FAICD, our Group Managing Director Jon Seeley and Director Kathy Seeley have travelled all the way from Australia to meet our valued customers.

“You people, that are selling our products, are the cream of the cream,” said Frank Seeley during his discourse “Because you have intentionally decided that you are going to go with quality, products that are effective and together we head the way into the future.”

Jon Seeley, during one of his speeches highlighted the importance of sharing successes and challenges, “We believe that together by sharing some of these stories we will have the opportunity to increase our effectiveness and our vision.”

Nurturing partnerships is particularly important for Seeley International: for this reason, we continue to support our network of valued distributors, partners, dealers and installers, including encouraging the synergies amongst them. In fact, in achieving our vision, “To lead the world in creating climate control solutions which continue to be highly innovative, of premium quality and inspirational in their delivery of energy-efficiency.” We are committed to valuing people and recognise that their contribution is key to our success. Looking forward to sharing more memories on the next International Conference! To watch the video of the event: https://tinyurl.com/4wmkb5nn eurosales@seeleyinternational.com www.seeleyinternational.com

Shine a light on your digital marketing

In this issue of Business and Industry Today, we are delighted to announce Starlight-Digital as our Paid Media Company of the Month.

Online sales are booming, with consumer e-commerce now accounting for 30% of the total retail market across the UK alone, according to The International Trade Administration. Forbes International has reported a similar trend globally, with online sales forecasted to be over $6.3 trillion by the end of 2023. What does this mean for digital advertising?

It is hard to be seen organically, amongst competitive digital advertising. Although positive word-of-mouth and owned media such as websites, blogs and social media set the tone for controlled visible content, many companies are now looking for a more multi-skilled channel approach. Leveraging paid media is a highly effective form of paid advertising that can increase strategic brand awareness, sales, traffic and a growth in revenue.

Starlight-Digital is a UK-based paid media agency, offering a unique bespoke consultancy service and utilising multi-channel strategy approaches. By using a hybrid of data-driven technical insights and innate creativity, the expert team deliver compelling industry-specific results. Starlight-Digital formularises the right channel mix and hones in on demographic and keyword targets. We spoke to Steven Mikellides,

“We combine the best of large agency experience and expertise, with the best in being an agile, boutique agency.”

“As a paid media agency, we specialise in Google Ads (PPC), all forms of social media ads across the likes of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Linkedin etc., Amazon ads, display ads, native ads and Apple Advertising services. We are also in the process of adding further services too and have just branched out to offering SEO (search engine optimisation) as well. Finally, we offer ongoing consultancy; providing digital health checks on a monthly or quarterly basis.”

“Our target companies are those with an annual turnover of £2 million+ and we envisage our company as a future search-first agency.”

The company was launched remotely during the COVID-pandemic and works with clients all over the UK, USA, Germany, Spain, Netherlands and further afield, helping them optimise digital branding and advertising.

for social media adverts is projected to exceed $268 billion by the end of this year alone.

It is essential that companies capitalise on visible social media advertising but a hopeful ‘spray and pray’ approach is not enough.

Starlight-Digital can boost performance by working on an audience-focused approach, specifically tailored to geography, industry or co-located brands. Using a ‘nurture through to conversion’ approach and high-end attribution modelling, users across multiple platforms from Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, to LinkedIn are strategically introduced to brands.

If you’re looking to advertise your company on the leading tour de force online retailer: Amazon, it can lead to highly profitable revenue, though a tactical approach is advisory.

Starlight-Digital are one of the UK’s foremost Amazon ads specialists and the team has extensive prior experience working for some of Amazon’s biggest advertisers. Amazon consumer behaviour varies widely to its competitors, with its twin symbiotic variables: prized five-star reviews and competitive pricing. In the last 25 years since its inception, Amazon has become the top-performing e-commerce platform in the UK alone and has more than 197 million global visitors monthly. It is imperative therefore to enter the Amazon cautiously and Starlight-Digital promise to ‘support you in getting the right creative assets, messaging and audiences needed to capture a piece of this rapidly growing Amazon platform.’

Founder and Managing Director extraordinaire to find out more about this young, enterprising company, “The company was officially established in 2021 and the name Starlight-Digital comes from my love of astronomy. My children were my inspiration to start my own business. My dad worked for himself and he could dictate his own hours, prioritising his children around his work. This was an example I wanted to follow. There’s nothing more important to me than family – I work to provide for them, but never at the sacrifice of being present in their lives.”

The name Starlight-Digital also lends itself to the world of digital marketing: ‘Shine a light on your digital media’ – helping companies leverage from emerging platforms like TikTok and benefit from proven business models like pay per click (PPC.)

Pay per click (PPC) is regarded as a surefire business model and the PPC experts at Starlight-Digital have over 20 years’ collective experience working across UK and international digital markets. With trillions of global Google searches every day, strategic Google PPC campaigns are critical for timely digital branding and sales. Having precision-driven keywords and ad copy will maximise optimal digital performance.

After a recent rebranding of the company website, Starlight-Digital are now ready to offer tailor-made, cutting-edge SEO services. Following a detailed digital analysis of a particular company’s industry, website and even competitors, the digital experts will guide you seamlessly through the most effective SEO approaches. With insider knowledge of how search engines operate; meticulous scrutiny of websites will unveil link building, keyword strategies, on-page optimisation, content creation and technical SEO to boost organic visibility, for targeted traffic, leads and sales generation.

Alongside PPC and SEO services, targeted social media ads are integral to any digital marketing strategy. There are a phenomenal 4.89 billion social media users across the globe and the total spend

The final area where Starlight-Digital can deliver is strategic app advertising, from installs to in-app actions, culminating in purchases or lead form sign-ups. Working directly with Google, Starlight-Digital confidently designs optimal Universal App Campaigns, compatible with all Google placements, including Google’s Play Store, the display network and YouTube. Furthermore, the team partner with Apple to design Apple Search Ad campaigns, guaranteeing priority placing in search options through the Apple App Store.

We can see a bright future for Starlight-Digital, offering its online expertise to companies around the world, looking for targeted, visible exposure. Steven explains that the industry has already noticed this young, ambitious company, “We’re finalists in The SME Business Awards in Northamptonshire and are eagerly awaiting results night soon in June! We are looking to continue growing, and over the next five years we hope to grow to a team of 20 staff and start working with household names.”

To start maximising your revenue today, speak to Starlight-Digital for bespoke consultancy:

T +44 (0)203 376 7800

hello@starlight-digital.com

https://starlight-digital.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/starlight-digitalmarketing/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fstarlight-digital.com%2F

Samet, Senior Paid Media Executive Reiss, Senior Paid Media Executive

Steve, Founder & Managing Director John-Luke, Senior Paid Media Manager Bianka, Paid Media Manager

Pumps & Valves

Pump technology helps reduce plastic waste

Quantex is the cutting-edge provider of recyclable pump technology, instead of the pump being attached to static equipment, it is uniquely fastened to liquid packaging, as part of a fully integrated fluid packaging system.

Quantex offers off-the-shelf, recyclable pumps with additional varying flow-rate ranges. In 2021, Quantex was acquired by PSG, an operating company of Dover Corporation and now sits alongside 13 other pump and flow measurement brands. We caught up with Director of Marketing, Gillian Harding-Moore to find out more about last year, “We’ve had an exceptional year, full of change. Benefiting from a ‘one company,’ collaborative culture, we’ve been integrating with sister brands in Germany, laying the foundations for rapid growth in 2023 and beyond.”

“Perhaps the biggest change is the move of our Head Office to Duisburg in Germany, joining our PSG sister brands: Quattroflow, Almatec and Hydro, making future collaboration even easier. At this established and quality-assured facility, we have more resources and manufacturing facilities, including 380msq of ISO 7 certified clean room facilities.”

Quantex’s London office and dedicated manufacturing plant in High Wycombe remains fully operational and with a further rebranding of the high-quality pumps, Quantex has harnessed the power of visible readability for customers. The pumps have been renamed to match corresponding maximum flowrates, allowing customers to select the right pump quickly and accurately.

This leading company has doubled pump production since 2021, through increased manufacturing, showing this company’s eager prowess in the industry. With a further automated assembly line planned for the Bag-in-Box pumps, it is expected that the pump production capability will triple this year.

The pump is clipped into a motor drive, allowing the liquid to be dispensed at different flow rates, dependent on the liquid. Once the liquid supply is depleted, the customer replaces the bag with a corresponding new bag and pump, as Gillian illustrates, “Quantex Pumps carry an exceptionally hygienic solution, especially with possible aseptic and sterile versions of the pumps, meaning that cleaning is eliminated since no product travels through the fixed machine. In addition, multiple products can be swapped in and out of the same channels with no cross-contamination.

“Further advantages include: pump maintenance/ calibration are eliminated due to Pumps being replaced with product packaging and the cost and footprint of the dispensing equipment is greatly reduced – due to the simplicity and wide availability of the mechanics required to drive the pump.

Furthermore, high vacuum capability means selfpriming, better bag evacuation/less waste, and highly viscous fluids can be pumped successfully. Usability is increased by the reverse cycling of the pumps allowing the dispenser to suck the product back in to eliminate drips and provide a clean dispense.

Ultimately, if brands can create higher concentrations of their products, our dilution pumps will enable them to take water out of the distribution channel, saving shipping costs and carbon emissions.”

Sustainability and cost-cutting are current priorities for many companies around the world and Quantex pumps help reduce expensive, rising shipping costs, offsetting carbon emissions by transporting less water, hereby minimising product shelf-space requirements.

There was a flurry of interest in both products from interested trade delegates. The ‘Supershelf™’ is a state-of-the-art new dispenser, allowing retail customers to sustainably refill existing bottles from bulk containers, making unnecessary existing, packaged containers redundant. Single-use packaging is one of the biggest villains of the plastic waste industry and this innovative product is helping end endless landfill waste.

The future looks bright for Quantex with exciting progressive projects planned as Gillian demonstrates, “In the near future, we’ve got some exciting collaborative projects planned with our sister PSG brands in multiple sectors including Biopharma, Industrial Cleaning and Agriculture.

“Over the next few years, Quantex will be supporting its Refill OEM customers to develop and establish an optimal, standardised platform for retailers, combining a delightful user-experience with IoT technology, with streamlined supply chain and shop-floor maintenance. “We will be growing our Industrial applications, where our pumps are used to reduce downtime for cleaning and maintenance in manufacturing lines.

Quantex has been busy refining these existing, excellent pumps even further, as Gillian explains, “We have a number of exciting new products in the pipeline for 2023, including our new High-Speed Eco Pumps. These use air pressure to activate the diaphragm and seal the pumps instead of a silicone spring, so they are more easily recycled, and can run almost three times as fast as our standard or high-pressure pumps. We are also working on new, easy-to-use Evaluation kits and pump driver technology which is primarily designed to help our OEM customers evaluate and integrate our pumps into their equipment more swiftly.”

The Quantex team had a successful run last year showcasing its unique recyclable pump technology at The Packaging Innovations & Empack at the NEC last May. The team exhibited two of its most popular dispensing machines in beverages and retail refill:

Fresh Blends® Frozen Beverages Self-Serve IoT Platform and FillX’s Supershelf™.

“Our technology is entering the Biopharma sector, offering hygienic and low-shear micro-dosing capabilities for cell and gene therapy and low-flow upstream applications. It’s an exciting sector where our pumps can make a difference.”

Quantex has unreservedly demonstrated a commitment to not only continuously producing quality-assured pump technology but by fully embracing the technological age, it has once again contributed to leading sustainable, ecological products.

For more information, please see below:

T +49 (2065) 89205-0 www.quantex-arc.com

Bag-in-Box Pump fitted to liquid pack

Human Resources Company of the Month

Putting the HUMAN into Human Resources

current cost-of-living crisis and overall, a challenging candidate market,” commented Sam Lee, Owner and Managing Director of multi-award-winning company: McGin-Lee HR Ltd and chartered member of the CIPD.

In this issue of Business and Industry Today, we are delighted to announce McGin-Lee HR Ltd as our Human Resources Company of the Month.

According to the 2020 CIPD report: People Profession

2030 Future Trends report, the recent COVID-pandemic put employees at the ‘very heart’ of the business agenda.

Now that we are entering the post-COVID era, multi-tiered workforces continue to prove challenging and enterprising for business managers, in equal measure.

“The COVID-pandemic was a huge period of change in workplaces, from positives such as remote and flexi-working, to the trickier aspects of navigating mental health challenges, the

Sam brings a wealth of expert HR insights, spanning from her 20+ years’ industry experience, and is familiar with all aspects of HR from: compliance and employment law, reward & recognition, employee engagement, recruitment, to the introduction of automated HR processes and other people initiatives.

Established in 2022, the independent HR consultancy has quickly emerged as an industry-leading company, with its mission to put employees at the heart of company culture and not just practise ‘cookie-cutter HR.’

In the last twelve months, McGin-Lee HR has picked up The Southern Enterprise Awards: Best Nationwide HR Consultancy 2022, The Global Awards 2022/23 Winner: Nationwide HR Consultancy of the Year (CorporateLiveWire), is a finalist at The Peterborough 2023 Small Business Awards and more recently, won two coveted awards at the UK Enterprise Awards 2023: The Most Innovative HR Consultancy Award & The SME Business Excellence Award in Acquisition International Magazine’s 2023 Business Excellence Awards.

The company prides itself on offering a bespoke HR solutionsapproach to diverse industries from: manufacturing, retail, charity, education, care, financial and technology.

“Whilst living in Lincolnshire, we cover the whole of the UK and beyond. Many clients now are happy with virtual support, although we are happy to meet IRL too!”

“HR isn't just for big corporates. We strongly feel that prevention is far better than cure.”

“We provide HR Solutions to businesses of all sizes, and

at all stage of the life-cycle: those about to hire their first employee, those with a small or growing team, through to bigger businesses – all present opportunities to really think about HR.”

“We cover all areas of HR, and we offer a range of flexible, bespoke solutions for our clients, we also support bigger businesses who have an HR team/person – either on an ad hoc or project basis.”

“Many of our clients do not have any internal HR resource, although we do support busy internal HR teams when there’s too much for them to do,” explained Sam. Just under half of all clients came to Sam initially for a specific employee issue, ranging from: employee underperformance, frequent sickness absence or a possible conduct issue, with the majority opting later for the monthly retainer package, for continued, expert support.

“We don’t simply focus on the process. We really get to know our clients so that we can become trusted partners as they grow. We look out for value-add opportunities. We prefer not to provide support on a time-based model, and instead prefer a deliverables/output-based model,” Sam explains.

McGin-Lee HR is your one-stop HR Pocket Rocket. Whether you’re looking for a benefits audit, HR hotline, HR Healthcheck, starter/compliance audit, through to recruitment packages, or disaster prevention & recovery.

“Our Micro-business Monthly Retainer is priced to be affordable and is uber-competitive. We’ve not seen it anywhere else (and again it’s not time-bound or with fixed parameters).”

McGin-Lee HR will be at The Business Show 2023: 22nd-23rd November: London ExCeL.

For much more information, and an initial free consultation and/or free HR Health-check, please see the website below:

T 01775 888242

T 07900 568978

samantha@mcgin-leehr.co.uk

https://mcgin-leehr.co.uk

Photos courtesy of Nate Lansdell, Photographer (https://asmileaday.photography)

Test, Measurement & Logistics

Vision Engineering launches new version of its bestselling Mantis optical stereo microscope

Vision Engineering, the world-leading provider of innovative inspection, metrology, and digital 3D visualisation solutions, today announced the launch of Mantis 3rd Gen, the latest addition to its best-selling and award-winning range of

ergonomic optical stereo microscopes.

Mantis is in use in tens of thousands of R&D, manufacturing and analytical sites around the world. Mantis 3rd Gen incorporates the latest developments in optics, digital cameras and fully adjustable LED lighting, to keep Mantis at the forefront of stereo imaging. Mantis is designed for precision engineering, electronic engineering, medical device manufacture, and a wide range of other applications that require high-quality images and superior ergonomics. It features a unique, patented, eyepiece-less design that delivers a large, high-quality optical stereo image directly into the user’s eyes, making it more comfortable and easier to view than traditional microscopes.

Manipulative, rework and restoration tasks need stereo images, to allow easy hand to eye co-ordination and depth perception. Mantis 3rd Gen combines stereo optical images, with high resolution camera options for manipulation and recording.

Mantis 3rd Gen features long working distance and excellent depth perception, now with a choice of 3 magnifications, making it ideal for a wide range of applications. It also now comes as standard with five different ways to illuminate your subject, giving you the

flexibility to adjust the lighting to get the perfect image for your needs.

In addition to its outstanding image quality and ergonomics, Mantis also features a powerful digital imaging system that allows you to capture, review, and share high-resolution images. This makes it easy to share your work with colleagues, document your findings, and train new employees.

Substantial R&D has resulted in a new range of stand options, to allow flexibility, stability and reduced footprint

“As our customers have told us for the last 28 years, Mantis is an ideal solution for anyone who needs to perform precise work with small objects,” said Mark Curtis, Managing Director at Vision Engineering. “We invest substantial R&D time and effort in exploiting the opportunities that fast moving optic, digital and lighting technologies offer our dedicated customer base. Mantis 3rd Gen offers the best of both worlds: superior ergonomics and optical image quality, combined with the latest digital imaging technology.” Mantis is available for purchase now. For more information, please visit: www.visioneng.com/mantis

Force, torque and pressure measurement

Interface Force Measurements has been supporting UK industry with the highest quality force, torque and pressure sensors for more than 25 years.

You can benefit from our experience whenever you contact us about your next measurement application, experience gained helping designers and engineers across multiple industrial sectors.

We’ll use our experience and product knowledge to help you select the best sensors for your application from our wide range of sensors from

some of the world’s best sensor manufactures, including:

● Interface Inc – single, dual, 3 and 6 axis load cells and torque transducers

● AMTI – six-axis load cells and force plates

● GP50 – pressure and temperature sensors for oil/gas, aerospace, automotive food/ beverage and general industry

● DDM – miniature pressure sensors for automotive R&D

● XSensor – pressure mapping systems for bed/mattress, seating, automotive R&D, tire testing applications and impact testing for seats, airbags, helmet and protective equipment

We can also help with your data collection needs which now includes Semota, our new continuous remote monitoring service. Offering continuous sensor data reporting to your iOS or Android device.

So, if you have a force, torque or pressure measurement challenge that you’d like our help with, please contact us.

Contact T 01344 776666 info@interface.uk.com www.interfaceforce.co.uk https://twitter.com/LoadcellsUK

Warehouse, Logistics & Fleet Management

Use bespoke containers to store chemicals safely

It is time to consider using a bespoke, converted container to safely store dangerous materials. Shipping container units are strong and durable, easy to modify and can be specifically adapted for the storage of dangerous goods.

Safely storing hazardous materials

The conversions team at S Jones Containers have extensive expertise providing purpose-built chemical stores, which are ideally suited for anyone needing to store hazardous materials with complete peace of mind. From bunded floors, louvred vents, ceiling suspended steel shelving and intrinsically safe ‘ATEX’ electrical installs, our skilled team of engineers will cover everything to ensure your storage is safe and compliant.

Bespoke chemical storage solutions

There are several options for chemical storage boxes from S Jones. One is our 10ft converted chemical

store for immediate delivery. This unit has a 450 litre capacity bunded floor, aluminium louvered vents and ceiling suspended steel shelving. The unit is user-friendly, accessible and legally compliant with COSHH regulations.

Our team can design and fabricate a bespoke hazardous materials storage container that suits the exact needs of your specific project. Unlike many shipping container companies, we design and manufacture your bespoke container conversion entirely in-house.

A bespoke conversion can be fitted with custom modifications, such as an insulated lining system and heater to ensure that the internal temperature is not affected by the outside temperature. We can also design

INFORM to deliver optimisation software for moving equipment during Europa Terminal upgrade

Europa Terminal of PSA Antwerp.

Source: PSA Antwerp

The German AI and optimisation specialist INFORM announced today that it will deliver its market proven Integrated Terminal Scheduler (ITS) to PSA Belgium’s Europa Terminal in order to optimise the move schedules for its quay cranes, straddle carriers, and automated stacking cranes (ASCs) during all transition phases of its upgrade. This state-of-the-art software, that will be fed by PSA Antwerp’s in-house Terminal Operation System (TOS) will be launched in 2026.

In November 2022, PSA and the Port of Antwerp-Bruges’ embarked on a grand upgrade of the Europa Terminal on the right bank of the river Scheldt. PSA has selected INFORM to help it optimise Europa Terminal’s moves on the yard during this refurbishment, where each time one third of the terminal is out of service. This is necessary in order to keep the terminal operational during the transition works, but will make organising the yard much more challenging due to the reduced space.

INFORM’s ITS solution has a proven track record. For over a decade, the software package refined a leading German port’s optimisation solution by developing its automated process. At Europa Terminal, INFORM will not only deliver its ITS, but it will also provide the control room user interface that will provide PSA Belgium operational transparency and management by exception. T +49 2408 9456 0 info@inform-software.com www.inform-software.com

your unit to ensure it has adequate ‘HVAC’ ventilation and humidity controls.

Every dangerous good or hazardous material has its own special considerations to think about when storing, meaning you may not be able to use a standard stock container conversion for your storage requirements.

If you’re looking for a bespoke storage unit for specific hazardous materials, contact our experienced conversions team who will be happy to discuss your specific requirements.

T 01922 741756 sales@sjonescontainers.co.uk www.sjonescontainers.co.uk

Allpack launches grip® Taper: The innovative WaterActivated Paper Tape Dispenser

Allpack is excited to announce the launch of its latest product, the grip® Taper. The innovative water-activated paper tape dispenser is designed to make packaging processes more efficient and environmentally friendly.

The grip® Taper allows operators to easily use biodegradable reinforced paper tape anywhere. The device is handheld and battery-operated, providing the freedom to pack parcels anywhere without the limitations of bulky desktop machines. The taper has a multitude of settings, enabling users to adjust the tape length and speed as required. With its unique, patent-pending design, the grip® Taper allows users

to easily apply water-activated paper tape to their packages with one hand while holding the package with the other. This frees up the other hand, making packaging faster and more ergonomic.

This easy-to-use taping solution is an excellent alternative to traditional desktop tape dispensers, taking up only half the space while being just as effective. The device’s multiple tape lengths and speed settings provide greater flexibility and control over the packaging process.

To book your demonstration of the new grip® Taper,

Clear benefits with the new TurboLux Spiral Door from Hörmann UK

please contact us today on: 01543 396777, via email at: sales@allpack.uk.com or for more information, please visit: www.allpack.uk.com/grip-taper

Hörmann UK have launched a new transparent, high speed spiral door, the HS5040 TurboLux and Turbolux S. With an impressive market leading opening speed of up to 4 M/s, the TurboLux range combines high speed operation with optimised transparency, strength, and durability, making the doors ideal for demanding warehouse and logistics applications where efficiency and visibility are key.

The TurboLux range offers a pleasingly symmetrical and compact design, with transparent door laths manufactured from a clear, high-grade polycarbonate, which provides high impact and breakage resistance. Providing 90% transparency, the door has been designed to maximise light and visibility, helping to reduce accidents, ensure smooth and efficient transport processes, and provide brighter working environments to improve operator conditions.

With TurboLux doors providing impressive opening speeds of up to 4 M/s and closing speeds of 1 M/s, operator safety is paramount. Situated within the side panels of the door is a light grille which monitors the door closing zone up to a height of 2,500mm whilst a gentle softstop function stops the door in the event of an obstacle being detected.

Standard door sizes of up to 5,000mm x 5,000mm can be achieved and the door can offer an optional wind load resistance of Class 4, speeds of up to 133 km/h, making the Turbolux suitable for both external and internal installation. Narrow side panels of 250mm result in a door that offers maximum flexibility as it can be fitted into confined spaces, with key components being supplied pre-assembled to aid fast and efficient installation.

Commenting on the introduction of the TurboLux range, Phil Thorpe, Industrial Division Manager at Hörmann UK says, “We are excited about the launch of the Hörmann TurboLux, our new high speed, transparent spiral door – a door that has been designed using high-quality materials to ensure a long service life and the ability to stand up to the wear and tear of challenging working environments.

Together with industry leading opening speeds and maximum visibility, TurboLux offers the market the chance to further speed up workflow processes and reduce energy costs. Once again, Hörmann are supplying the market with a real difference, and we think we have produced a clear winner.”

To find out more about Hörmann, please visit: www.hormann.co.uk or call: 01530 516868.

The UK’s premier farm machinery show was back with a bang this year on the 10th-11th January at the NEC in Birmingham.

Over 40,000 people attended the show over the two days that offered the perfect surroundings for farmers from all sectors to connect with companies who provide cutting-edge machinery, technology and equipment for the farming industry.

Over 600 exhibitors were in attendance to showcase the latest tractors, combines, arable and grassland machinery, as well as a wide range of new technology, services and tools for every sector. Well-known brands such as ADM Agriculture LTD, Heath Engineering, The National Association of Agricultural Contractors, and many more were all excited to enhance their brand awareness and network with fellow industry professionals and potential new customers.

Visitors had a fantastic opportunity to visit the Farm Safety and Security Zone where they could access and improve their on-farm safety and security. Visitors and exhibitors were also able to learn about investment opportunities in the UK and how to expand a business in foreign markets in the International Export Advice Centre, which was sponsored by the Department of International Trade.

Vredestein Tyres

Shaped by our European heritage, we are setting the pace for the future of global tyre technology.

By celebrating the lessons learned over our 110-year history and investing in our future through pioneering R&D centres and testing, we continue our legacy for the next generation.

Our vision

Our vision at Vredestein has always been the same. To redefine the way we move by designing and developing tyre products, which set the global standard in performance, safety and control. Through our investments in research and development, we continue to pioneer and produce tyre products, which provide our users with exceptional driving experiences in every season.

Our future

We are a brand of firsts. We have mastered

One of the main attractions was the Future Farming Trail – the go-to feature that enabled the discovery of the evolution of agriculture, featuring the latest and greatest innovation for the future under one roof using VR headsets.

Alongside many product launches, innovations and presentations, LAMMA 2023 was a great success, and set up the stage for a fantastic 2024 expo that will be held on the 17th & 18th January 2024, NEC, Birmingham.

This is our pick of the best exhibitors from this year’s event, listed here in alphabetical order: Apollo Tyres, Bush Tyres, B Price Mus-Max, Davies Technology Ltd, Fox Robotics, Fuel Additives Science Technologies (FAST) & Heath Engineering. Further details can be found on this page and a half.

https://www.lammashow.com

Fuel Additive Science Technologies Limited (FAST)

fuel quality, engine performance and reduce emissions.

Agricultural products

● We supply many of the agricultural dealerships throughout the UK with products designed to improve red diesel to better than EN 590:

● Gas Oil Supreme – as per image

Who we are Fuel Additive Science Technologies Limited (FAST) formulates, blends and distributes fuel additives under the exocet® brand and as own-brand products for wide ranging customers.

Our fuel additives use tried and tested chemistry and methodology from the world’s most reputable suppliers.

Our staff includes recognised oil and fuel industry professionals with experience in fuels science,

refinery processes and chemicals manufacture.

What are Fuel Additives?

Adding chemicals to fuel to achieve a ‘different’ or ‘desired’ performance is not a new concept, it goes back 100 years. Only the very cheapest road fuels do not contain an additive package and via the Worldwide Fuel Charter, the majority OEM’s now prescribe the use of additives. Additives can be used to improve

● Gas Oil Conditioner – all the benefits of Gas Oil Supreme with the addition of Anti-bug Protect and Fuel Store, advised for slow use fuel or fuel storage

● Diesel Power Restorer – on-line injector cleaner for use at service intervals

● Anti-bug solutions

● Anti-wax products

T 01743 761415 sales@fastexocet.co.uk www.fastexocet.co.uk

Cost-effective Tractor Tyres that last

If you are looking for new tractor or agricultural tyres and need something cost-effective that will actually last, Ascenso tyres might be the answer.

the foundations of tyre design and function and for us; the future is about refining what we do and how we do it. By ensuring that the products, which we produce and the process through which we produce them benefits the generations of today, and tomorrow.

The protection of our environment and its resources is a responsibility for each of us. We, as a global brand, are committed to our continued investment in sustainable solutions within tyre design, production, distribution and disposal.

Contact Darren Longstaff, T 07814 181084 darren.longstaff@apollotyres.com

https://www.apollotyres.com/en-gb

https://www.vredestein.co.uk

Since it’s UK launch in early 2021, Ascenso has gone from strength to strength becoming a popular choice for farmers and farm contractors across the country.

Farm radial tyres all come with 65k speed ratings and the latest Mud Breaker Technology, which ensures better self-cleaning properties and maximum traction.

The tyre range includes over 400 sizes across Agriculture, Industrial & Construction, Material Handling, Earth Mover and Forestry.

Ascenso offers an incredible tyre warranty, 7 years on farm radial and 5 years on bias. Showing how confident they are in the quality and longevity of their tyres.

The brand also has OE status on manufacturers’ products, including Fliegl, Househam Sprayers, Larrington Trailers, with more manufacturers currently testing the tyres.

The Ascenso UK team said, “We have seen a great response to the products, and with the arrival of Ascenso’s VF technology range this year, the brand will soon cater for all aspects of the agricultural tyre market making it the go-to brand for farm owners and contractors. Ascenso are

looking to introduce an additional 300 new sizes in 2023 taking the full product range to nearly the 800 mark, well exceeding many leading tyre manufacturers.”

Ask your local tyre dealer about Ascenso tyres, or please visit: www.ascensotyresuk.co.uk for more information.

Davies

Technology Ltd: The DTEC 200 bucket

Davies Technology Ltd specialise in manufacturing feeding auger buckets for farmers. They offer a range of buckets for feeding different feed types and different applications. Director Stephen Davies has worked in the agricultural industry for 15 years and applied all the knowledge to design and built the DTEC 200 bucket.

At the May 2022 LAMMA show, Steve won the ‘Young Engineers Award’ for his DTEC 200 bucket, which was then followed by the winning the ‘Silver Gwobr Dr Alban Davies’ trophy for innovation at the 2022 Royal Welsh Show.

The DTEC 200 mixer bucket has gone through extensive testing over the 2022/2023 winter and will continue to be updated, as the market changes. Along with DTEC 200 mixer bucket, Davies Technology offers a more basic feeding bucket with a plain auger that can also be used for chopping root crops.

Davies Technology Ltd, also carry out other specialist engineering jobs for clients, from the design stage all the way through to manufacturing and installing with the end user. They pride themselves on their professional approach and ability to take on the difficult tasks.

If you have any queries on the DTEC 200 bucket or any other work Davies Technology Ltd may be able to help with, please contact: stephen@daviestech.co.uk.

M 07929 080472 https://www.daviestech.co.uk

Issue 446 June 2023

Tel: 0121 550 7510

www.businessandindustrytoday.co.uk

SUSTAINABILITY TOD AY

on LinkedIn

Panasonic HQ Heat Pump Training Centre in Welwyn receives ministerial visit

The Rt Hon Grant Shapps, MP and Secretary of State for the Department of Energy Security & Net Zero, today visited the Panasonic Heating & Cooling HQ and Heat Pump Training Centre in Welwyn Garden City. Panasonic Heating & Cooling Solutions was pleased to receive a visit from Rt Hon Grant Shapps, MP for Welwyn Hatfield and Secretary of State for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, to its Welwyn headquarters to see first-hand the new fully equipped training centre for heating and cooling systems. This visit follows Mr Shapps’ recent trip to Japan for the G7 Summit during which time he also visited the Panasonic factory and R&D facility in Tokyo.

Encouraging UK homeowners to switch to low carbon technologies is a key cornerstone of government policy, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides upfront capital grants to support

the installation of heat pumps and biomass boilers in homes and non-domestic buildings in England and Wales. Panasonic offers support and training for installers looking to fit heat pumps and during his visit, Grant Shapps learnt about Panasonic’s latest incentive; a new scheme to encourage installers to train in this new technology, by offering £500 in Rewards on completion of their accredited heat pump training and their first Panasonic installation1 The scheme is due to launch in May 2023.

For more information, please visit: www.aircon.panasonic.eu

1 Terms & Conditions apply

UNCertified sustainable corrugated packaging

Cepac Group is one of the UK’s leading, most innovative developers and manufacturers of corrugated packaging solutions, supplying a full range of corrugated transit products across a diverse range of market sectors.

From planning through design, testing, certifying and into manufacture, Cepac is the UK’s most focused, specialist corrugated packaging producer of robust corrugated transit solutions for potentially dangerous goods. UN Certified and fit for purpose, Cepac uses sustainable, fully recyclable corrugated packaging materials, ensuring your goods arrive safely at their destination.

As the UK’s most dynamic and innovative manufacturer of complete corrugated

packaging solutions, the development and innovation within Cepac’s UN packaging range has strengthened the company’s

offering within the hazardous goods sector. Cepac is able to provide a range of liquid packs for industrial chemicals, agrochemicals, and other applications.

Every stage of the process, from design and development to testing and manufacture, takes place at Cepac’s Rawcliffe facility in the UK. With a broad portfolio of corrugated packaging solutions, the company can cater for a diverse range of packaging applications and requirements.

M 07384 215106 Simon.Wardell@cepac.co.uk www.cepac.co.uk

Shaw Contract EMEA: Enabling a circular economy

Shaw Contract EMEA designs, manufactures and stocks commercial flooring solutions, including carpet tiles and resilient flooring, for the UK, Continental Europe, the Middle East and Africa markets. This year, Shaw Contract is celebrating five years of UK-based manufacturing from its carbon neutral facility in Scotland, which draws 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.

In practise, Shaw Contract is future-focused on decisions that positively impact people and the planet. Its People Together, Planet Forever approach to sustainable flooring solutions is underpinned by four points of ambition: enabling a circular economy; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); material health; and reducing carbon impact.

Shaw’s newest carpet tile collection, New Path, heralds the next step of a journey to combat carbon impact with the introduction of an innovative new plastomer polyolefin EcoWorx S™ backing that is carbon neutral, closed-loop recyclable and optimised for low embodied carbon. The New Path collection on EcoWorx S™ is produced using EcoSolution Q100™, solution dyed nylon made from 100% recycled content nylon fibre. Inspired by experience, community and diversity, this new Cradle to Cradle Certified® Silver carpet tile collection promotes a sense of belonging and engagement within the spaces where we work, learn and collaborate.

Learn more at: www.shawcontract.com

Futurebuild 2023 Review – Top Exhibitors Futurebuild 2023 wraps up with optimism for the future

Futurebuild, the event dedicated to building a better future for the built environment calls a wrap on its exciting annual industry event held from 7th-9th March 2023.

Trailblazers from across the entire built environment came together to take a stand through innovation, knowledge-sharing and networking.

Across the three days, Futurebuild hosted over 17,800 visitors, 500 speakers, 400 exhibitors, 135 sessions, and 90 curators to join forces in creating a more sustainable future. With sustainability a more relevant topic than ever, Futurebuild’s expansive exhibition was specially curated to drive change across the entire supply chain through showcasing the best in innovative bio-products and sustainable solutions throughout the whole event.

A showcase that truly makes a difference

In addition to celebrating innovation in sustainable products, Futurebuild wanted to offer solutions which create a quantifiable, positive impact on the environment. As many products

claim to be sustainable, Futurebuild placed an emphasis on providing accurate factual reporting about the green credentials of its offerings.

Staying true to its roots sustainability and innovation ran through every aspect of the show and saw the team launch their Walk the Talk campaign that led to a significant reduction in the event’s carbon footprint. Removing the aisle carpet alone (just one of the changes) reduced the event’s carbon emissions by 27,707kg. Over the next 12 months the team at Futurebuild will assess what impact the changes had and what more changes can be made to drive even further reductions in 2024.

Stay tuned for more Futurebuild 2023 ended in the same

CeraPhi Energy

CeraPhi Energy, a company specialising in Deep Geothermal heat exchange technology has been contracted by the James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to investigate sustainable solutions for its new hospital in Great Yarmouth.

As part of the government programme to build 48 new hospitals by the end of the decade, the new addition to the James Paget will be fully operational by 2030.

Jim Hackett, Programme Director of Strategic Estates at the James Paget Hospital, commented, “Central to the hospital’s build is sustainable development,

energy efficiency, and net zero

carbon. In this regard we were fortunate to be introduced to CeraPhi Energy, discussing its unique capabilities and technology in bringing offshore expertise to benefit onshore applications. The methodology adopted comprises harvesting deep core geothermal heat,

Withover 40 years’ experience as an industry leading External Wall Insulation (EWI) system designer, we have continuously developed our extensive range of innovative products, systems and solutions:

t EWI – We offer a full range of EWI systems with a wide range of Insulation types, textures, finishes and colour schemes

t Structherm Cage System – used to stabilise and insulate Non-Traditional, hard to treat, system built or structurally defective properties and High-Rise Buildings.

t ArtBrick™ – a unique Acrylic render finish used to create, or replicate real brick, stone and wood finishes. Ideal for conservation areas subject to strict planning constraints.

t Structherm RoofLine™ – an integrated robust eaves and verge rainwater solution to provide a fully sealed & insulated gutter, negating the need for roof extensions.

t Structherm ThermaBase™ – an easily installed, pre-finished insulation panel used to insulate below DPC to ground level.

We have a wide range of BBA Certified systems and our design and manufacturing processes are carried out under strict procedures incorporating ISO-9001, ISO14001 and ISO-45001 Management systems.

To find out how Structherm can benefit you with your future project requirements, please contact us on: 01484 850098 or email us at: info@structherm.co.uk.

way it began with an optimistic outlook for the future of the built environment. Visitors left with renewed excitement and new knowledge of sustainable solutions and innovations in the sector.

Although the annual live event is over, Futurebuild works on providing content all year round. To relive the event, the full programme will be available in the coming weeks.

Having received insightful feedback from visitors on what they would like to see at Futurebuild 2024, the team is inspired to cover an even greater range of topics next year to again engage and challenge the industry to build better.

Save the date 5th-7th March 2024 –don’t miss out on next year’s show. This is our pick of the best exhibitors from this year’s event, listed here in alphabetical order: CeraPhi Energy, KNX National UK, Masterframe Windows, My Global Home, Natural Building Systems, Nordic Energy, Reflow & Structherm. Further details can be found on this page and a half. www.futurebuild.co.uk

utilising the CeraPhiWell™ delivery solution. We have now progressed our engagement to a formal feasibility study to examine the potential for both our existing and new hospital.”

The commissioning of this study is a significant turning point for both CeraPhi Energy and the UK geothermal industry, with the potential to apply similar studies to hospitals all over the nation.

CeraPhi Energy is the leading company in this field and the first to offer an end to end solution from securing finance to full development and energy production.

www.ceraphi.com

Re-flow Field Management Software

Re-flow is an award-winning field management software provider serving the construction industry and associated sectors. Aiming to unite the back office and remote sites, the comprehensive system brings all crucial field management functionalities under one digital umbrella. Including digital job sheets, task scheduling, asset management, digital forms, team communication and more, Re-flow is actively streamlining the field operations of hundreds of firms nationwide. Having firmly established themselves within the sector over the past several years, Reflow is now a leading software provider. The system is poised to solve common industry problems, including issues with efficiency, siloed systems, poor auditing, compliance, and cross-team communication. Designed from the mobile application backwards, the system’s development was guided by feedback from field users. Bolstered by advanced tools such as automation, form building and API integration,

Re-flow can seamlessly slot into existing business processes, including accountancy packages and ERPs.

Businesses including M.V. Kelly and BMI are now utilising Re-flow to digitally transform their operational processes – increasing profitability, streamlining tedious administrative tasks, mastering HSE management and achieving more sustainable business growth.

Contact T 01392 574001 info@re-flow.co.uk www.re-flow.co.uk

Natural Building Systems: Naturally Smarter

Natural Building Systems, in collaboration with GS1 and Terravesta, hosted the FutureBuild bar takeover to promote their commitment to sustainable construction and combatting climate change through the built environment. Their construction system uses climate neutral materials to create a breathable and thermally efficient envelope, including floors, roofs, and walls.

With the built environment responsible for 38% of global carbon emissions, Natural Building Systems uses high-performance natural insulation materials to maximise bio-carbon storage within buildings, reducing global emissions. Even a small home built with their system saves over 50 tonnes of embodied CO2 compared to conventional masonry construction. Similar to flat pack furniture, their system is an integrated kit that can be easily transported and assembled by non-specialised labour. Innovative materials and manufacturing techniques enhance energy efficiency and indoor air quality, leveraging the benefits of natural insulation materials like HempSil®, a novel bio-composite insulation with exceptional hygrothermal benefits.

The system is also designed for disassembly and

Specialist External Wall Insulation Solutions

01484 850098

info@structherm.co.uk www.structherm.co.uk

adaptability, allowing non-destructive alterations and reassembly. Future components will include building information modelling (BIM) material passports, facilitating precise carbon tracking and promoting re-use.

Contact T 01379 308835 info@naturalbuildingsystems.com

www.naturalbuildingsystems.com

https://www.instagram.com/naturalbuildingsystems

External Wall Insulation (EWI)

Standard EWI and structural solutions for hard to treat, structurally defective and high rise properties

ArtBrick™

Unique render finish ideal for conservation areas/planning constraint that can match existing brick, stone or timber

Structherm RoofLine™

Robust Insulated Rainwater Management System for use with EWI systems

Alternative

Spotless Water revolutionises Solar Panel Cleaning

Water, the leading provider of ultra-pure water across the UK, provides the most innovative water solution for solar panel cleaning, offering installers and cleaners of solar panels the ideal ecofriendly and safe cleaning product.

Spotless

With the increasing adoption of solar energy, the maintenance and cleanliness of solar panels plays a vital role in maximising energy output. Each panel loses approximately 50% and, in some cases, up to 90% of its energy-generating ability if this regular clean is missed. Spotless Water provides a national game-changing service that revolutionises solar panel cleaning processes.

Traditional cleaning methods often involve harsh chemicals and detergents that not only harm the environment, and corrode metal components, but also pose safety risks to workers. Spotless Water eliminates these concerns as their ultra-pure water is non-corrosive and doesn’t conduct electricity, ensuring a safe cleaning process.

The ultra-pure water supplied by Spotless Water removes dirt, dust, and grime from solar panels effectively, without the need for additional chemicals or detergents. This ecofriendly approach enhances the performance and lifespan of solar panels and reduces the environmental footprint associated with their maintenance.

For more information about Spotless Water, please visit: www.spotlesswater.co.uk or contact us on: media@spotlesswater.co.uk.

Futurebuild 2023 Review – Top Exhibitors

Better buildings through technology & data Nordic Energy: Renewable Energy & Decarbonisation Experts

Creating an ESG strategy is one of the biggest challenges facing property developers and portfolio owners. Increased energy costs, climate change and the evergrowing burden of compliance present a growing problem. Propcode is a technology system designed to enable developers and landlords to overcome these challenges. Using our AI-powered platform GreenMind, and MyGlobalHome’s Ultra building control technology, Propcode delivers an environmental health check for your portfolio, enabling you to streamline your capital expenditure toward environmental compliance.

GreenMind is a platform for all portfolio landlords and developers; a regulated coding methodology that shows a portfolio’s environmental compliance at any one time, enabling you to make optimised and informed decisions towards an overarching ESG strategy.

GreenMind delivers detailed information on a property’s status including its construction, state of repair, EPC rating, location, climate risk – and more. This real time data set establishes your

best performing properties and your worst. Then, having established the baseline and armed with your GreenMind data you can index, categorise and plan in line with your ESG strategy. Critically, you’ll be able to understand what – and what doesn’t – need to change.

The data is specific to your portfolio, enabling you to categorise it in accordance with your income streams making it a major source of efficiency in achieving targeted and effective capex. You can reduce overheads, avoid over-spec, target upgrades, achieve set ESG goals, works towards GRESB validation and, the information can be evidenced in reducing insurance premiums and granting access to preferential green finance lending. Put simply, it is the knowledge and power you need to plan your path to net zero.

Contact Jon Scott, jon@propcode.co www.propcode.co

Masterframe Trade Sash Windows

Masterframe, the award winning sash window specialist renowned for their innovation in sash windows are delighted to present to the market an amazing new product capable of pushing the boundaries of sustainability, energy efficiency, sound attenuation and light transmission. Not only does this product tick all these boxes but now that Masterframe have been able to engineer this into their premium sash window range, its aesthetic appearance really offers the wow factor.

Neosash now offers the market an amazing choice of groundbreaking benefits fitted with the new Fineo vacuum glazing. Unique to sash windows, it truly delivers a single glazed appearance. Made up of a 6mm and 4mm pane of glass separated by a vacuum cavity and tiny micropillars. This amazing

glass is able to deliver a 1.2 whole product U-value which meets the new regulations. This means that its energy benefits make a real difference to customers. It doesn’t stop there, Masterframe has also developed a new bar and bead to compliment the introduction of this new vacuum glass. Deeper and more beautiful, this bar and bead offer a timber look but with virtually no maintenance for tens of years.

Neosash delivers a truly authentic

timber alternative option and comes with a unique 15 Year Guarantee. Come and see it for yourself. What other sash window delivers such peace of mind or true value for money with no ongoing cost, just a gentle wash twice a year, it’s as simple as that. No expensive redecoration, scaffolding or inconvenience, it makes perfect sense.

To find out more, please visit: www.masterframetrade.co.uk/ neosash

Want to see Neosash for yourself, we would be delighted to host you here at our showroom or it’s available to view in many of our Partnered Master Installers Showrooms throughout the UK.

T 0800 591854 sales@masterframe.co.uk www.masterframetrade.co.uk

Nordic Energy is looking at the full spectrum of heat decarbonisation: retrofit, new build, industrial, heat pumps and heat networks. We are working on regional masterplans, business cases and project development.

Infrastructure may not be ‘sexy,’ but it is so important to our everyday lives and in the transition to Net Zero. We went to Futurebuild with the intention to meet new partners on this journey. And we met plenty because this path is being forged by companies who collaborate.

We are now using some of those new partners to press forward on city-scale decarbonisation projects. Working alongside talented architects, engineers, and urban designers, we are really excited about creating beautiful city spaces fit for a Zero Carbon future.

There are deep challenges that we must navigate through, from the congested web of utilities under our streets to the more personal challenge of moving individual homes away from gas boiler heating.

KNX UK

As the construction industry seeks to reduce its impact on the environment, one technology that’s making a significant contribution to the sustainability goal is KNX.

KNX is the only worldwide standard* for smart building controls that seamlessly integrates building automation components and systems. Integration of lighting, HVAC, security, AV, occupancy and tracking are brought together in one single, non-proprietary system.

For building technology specifiers, KNX combines increased sustainability with easily adaptable and future-proofed solutions.

Typical energy savings could be up to 40% in shading control, 50% in individual room control, 60% in lighting control and up 60% in ventilation

We are now working with our partners on training and apprenticeships to help fill the skills gap in retrofit, heat pumps and heat networks.

Contact

T 0333 012 4032 hello@nordic.energy

www.nordic.energy

control. With the potential to impact the sustainability of your projects to this level, KNX can’t be ignored.

Our mission at KNX UK** is to educate building specifiers and BMS professionals in the benefits of KNX. Download our free Specification Guide here to find out how:

https://knxuk.org/specification-guide

KNX is a powerful tool for specifiers who want to create sustainable and efficient buildings. Whether you are designing a new building or retrofitting an existing one, it is a technology that should be on your radar.

T +44 (0)1344 985176

admin@knxuk.org

www.knxuk.org

*International Standard (ISO/IEC 14543–3), European Standard (CENELEC EN50090 and EN ISO 22510) and Chinese Standard (GB/T 20965).

**Non-profit association – comprised of Manufacturers, Distributors, Integrators and Training Centres.

The World Biogas Summit & Expo Review – Top Exhibitors

Momentum builds behind World Biogas Summit and Expo 2024

The world’s largest tradeshow dedicated to anaerobic digestion and biogas, the World Biogas Summit and Expo, takes place annually at the NEC in Birmingham. This year’s high-level event in March attracted over 3,000 delegates from over 100 countries and over 150 exhibitors from the supply chain.

Keynote speaker, Jennifer Sara, Global Director for Climate Change Global Practice at the World Bank, delivered a strong call to action, ‘the world is on fire, biogas is a solution.’ This was clear recognition of the meaningful role biogas can play in decarbonising the worst greenhouse gas emitting sectors – energy, food production and transport – and delivery of the Global Methane Pledge, recognised as the fastest, most economical way to keep 1.5 alive.

Organised by the UK Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) and the World Biogas Association (WBA), the event was addressed by over 60 speakers, including captains of industry, the International Energy Agency, the

Driving the biogas revolution:

WBA Chief Executive Charlotte Morton OBE and ADBA

Chairman Chris Huhne present New Holland Agriculture/ Bennamann, with the winner’s trophy in the ‘Net Zero Circular Solutions’ category in this year’s AD and Biogas Awards, for developing a closed-loop farming system hinged on New Holland’s innovative biomethane tractor

Birch Solutions: Providing expert biogas plant services across the UK

Gas Institute NAS of Ukraine and KMPG, with sessions considering big oil and biogas, future gases and transport fuels and finance alongside immediate challenges of climate, energy and food security.

With world governments following the lead of the EU and US in backing biogas as a decarbonisation pathway, alongside significant investments from the likes of Shell, BP and Goldman Sachs, momentum is building behind the industry ahead of 2024’s event.

The World Biogas Summit and Expo 2024 will take place in July 2024 at the NEC Birmingham.

This is our pick of the best exhibitors from this year’s event, listed here in alphabetical order: Advanced Bacterial Science, Birch Solutions, CPL Activated Carbons, Gas Engine Exchange, NFU Energy, Online Lubricants, Siloshop & Steverding Rührwerkstechnik GmbH. Further details can be found on this page and a half. www.biogastradeshow.com

Steverding Rührwerkstechnik GmbH

Steverding Rührwerkstechnik GmbH is an expert in agitators. High technology is expected today at all levels of power generation. Steverding Rührwerkstechnik can boast more than 20 years of experience in the manufacture of agitators. The continuous optimisation and analysis of our products together with constant technical innovation show best results. Today, we are partners and system component suppliers of leading biomass facility manufactures worldwide. Steverding Rührwerkstechnik brings machinery and equipment manufactures together with strong innovative constructors under one roof. Our core business: Analysis and System | Certification | Conception and Optimisation | Research and Technological Development | Production and Installation | Maintenance – Repair | Repowering. We are a team permanently striving to meet even higher quality standards where the contribution and

achievements of each individual counts. We rely on our own employees and do not outsource any production processes to less qualified temporary workers. To meet the needs of the farmers, to optimise the whole process – this is our mission.

T +49 (0)2563 4611

info@rt-st.com

https://www.ruehrwerkstechnik-steverding. de/en

Birch Solutions is now the leading provider of expert services to the AD, biogas, BioResources, and renewable generation sector in the UK. We have big ambitions to go even further. We are trusted to consistently deliver excellence for mission critical service support.

The business is dedicated to developing new anaerobic digestion plants, supporting biogas facilities of all sizes, and providing leading services, maintenance, parts, and expertise to ensure customers can maximise their revenue and cut input costs.

Working with PlanET, Birch Solutions can develop and build new AD plants up to 60GW (or Tier One) under the Government Green Gas Scheme. Whether it’s compact agricultural facilities or projects on an industrial scale, specialists from Birch Solutions can provide expert support from the very first talks, all the way through to commissioning.

For existing plants, Birch Solutions deliver a range of services to help AD operators to maximise their efficiency and fulfil their financial potential.

This includes expert tailored AD biological analysis through the BioLab and the

Bioresources services team and provide liquid and powder lime dosing for a range of applications.

Birch Solutions also provides a range of Parts and Service Support packages tailored to suit the requirements of your individual site. We are the preferred UK supplier for many key parts suppliers, giving you instant access to the parts and maintenance you need, to ensure you minimise any downtime. This service includes full site audits and experts on hand to provide advice. Access to a full UK parts store, import parts from OEMs and rapid response with 24 hours call out, enables our qualified teams to install key equipment and provide support when you need it most.

Our support and expertise encompass all elements of your AD plant, including the service and maintenance your CHP. Our team can provide a full range of services from routine works, and service checks to full rebuilds. Where remote access is available, we can dial in to offer diagnostics to potentially provide instant solutions.

To learn more about how Birch Solutions can help you, contact our expert team today by emailing: parts@birchsolutions.co.uk or calling: 01652 686060. You can also visit our website at: https://birchsolutions.co.uk and find us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to follow our journey and hopefully assist you with yours!

https://www.linkedin.com/company/birchsolutions-uk-ltd

https://www.facebook.com/birchsolutionsuk https://twitter.com/BirchSolution

Biogas Expo success for CPL

The team from CPL Activated Carbons enjoyed a busy and successful couple of days at the recent World Biogas Expo at the NEC.

Activated carbon is used to remove unwanted impurities from biogas streams – such as siloxanes and hydrogen sulfide – which can cause damage to CHP engines or make the gas unsuitable for grid injection (as biomethane).

CPL Activated Carbons is a full service provider into this sector, supplying a range of FiltraCarb® carbon media, plus a selection of VOCSorber® mobile carbon filters that offer end-users a convenient plug & play solution. When the activated carbon is spent and needs replacing, the used material can usually be recycled via thermal reactivation at the company’s site in Immingham.

As in previous years, CPL arranged for one of their largest mobile VOCSorber® units to be located inside the Hall, forming the focal point of their display. This huge vessel, standing over 7 metres tall, proved to be quite a talking point for attendees to the show, and was visible throughout the Hall, making the stand very easy to locate!

Next up for the CPL team – the RWM expo at the NEC in September.

T 01942 824240

info@activated-carbon.com www.activated-carbon.com

The CPL Activated Carbons stand at the World Biogas Expo (photo: D. Reay)

Oliver Twinsafe Chosen to supply world’s single largest Offshore Wind Farm

Oliver Twinsafe are to supply a range of Modular and Monoflange double block and bleed valves to the Hornsea 3 Wind Farm project located in the UK sector of the North Sea. Hornsea 3 has two platforms, link 1 and link 2. These are unmanned and operated from shore with access to carry out maintenance done by vessel or helicopter.

These High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) offshore converter platforms have a combined capacity to produce 2.852GW, enough to power the average daily needs of over 3 million UK homes. This makes it the single largest offshore wind project in the world.

Manufactured from 316 Stainless Steel, Super Duplex, and Titanium materials, valves are to be used in cooling systems and firewater applications. Regional Manager for Scotland and Scandinavia, Colin Wood, says, “We’re extremely proud as a business to supply valves for operation on large-scale green energy projects, and it’s particularly exciting

EasyQote: Self-Adhering Coating Solutions

to be working with a UK-based green project, such as Hornsea 3.”

“We’re committed to supporting a Net Zero Emission future, and have recently launched a range of zero seat leakage valves for hydrogen applications. Our investment in designing new and innovative valve technologies is having an enormous impact and is hugely significant –even a game changer!”

For more information on how Oliver Twinsafe can support your green energy project with the very best valve solutions, contact us on: +44 (0)1565 632636, email: sales@valves.co.uk or visit: www.valves.co.uk

Wind turbines globally face a variety of challenging conditions; warm winds, cold winds, strong winds, 360’ exposure, constant waves, sand storms, changing temperatures, hail, rain, snow. They have, and will, see it all.

These circumstances are the perfect recipe for causing corrosion to creep into crevices, at flange connections, ladders and walkways, and to the protective paint coatings applied at the start. All these elements in a downward spiral lead to further corrosion and in turn eventually can cause structural failures.

In order to help the wind industry

excel in our renewable energy market, we need to provide protection to these assets so that they can last longer, so we can make renewable energy truly sustainable.

Powered by STOPAQ, EasyQote products are doing just that –providing vital protection to the industry with their simple and efficient solutions.

EasyQote is a polymeric coating designed with the concept that a corrosion solution could be applied

simply as a sticker rather than painting or spraying. It is 100% plant based and therefore safe for both user and the environment as well as being simple to apply.

Establishing itself as a long-term corrosion solution in some of the toughest environments. The EasyQote range of products have stopped corrosion from the monopiles and foundations up to components in the nacelle. The unlimited shelf life of these products mean they can be used as and when any coating damage takes place either onshore or offshore. They are readily available in the standard colours and any technician can carry out the coating repairs in minutes, stopping corrosion in its tracks. It really can be as Easy as 1, 2, 3. www.easyqote.com

The World Biogas Summit & Expo Review – Top Exhibitors

NFU Energy helps get Green Gas Support Scheme applications over the line

Since the launch of government’s Green Gas Support Scheme (GGSS) in 2021, NFU Energy’s application to the scheme on behalf of one of their clients has been the first and only application to be approved by Ofgem and successfully registered on to the scheme.

The GGSS is a government environmental scheme that provides financial incentives for plants producing biomethane via anaerobic digestion, which is injected into the gas grid. As of 31st March 2023, Ofgem had received a total of 22 applications since November 2021; however, only one site has had Ofgem approval, a site, which approached NFU Energy to help with its application.

Located in the South of England, the site so far has benefitted from one periodic support payment of £104,860.84 based on 246,292m3 of green gas injected into the grid, that’s enough to generate approximately 1,903,100.63kWhth of heat output1. Its operation will contribute to carbon emissions savings by reducing the emissions intensity of the UK’s natural gas supply, as well as reducing emissions from waste.

Applications are open for the GGSS until 30 November 2025. Once registered on the GGSS, eligible biomethane producers can claim payments for producing biomethane using anaerobic digestion and injecting it into

the gas grid. These payments are based on the volume of eligible biomethane injected into the grid and are made every three months over 15 years.

Contact

T 024 7669 6512 info@nfuenergy.co.uk www.nfuenergy.co.uk

1 GGSS Quarterly Report Issue 6 Q4 202223 (ofgem.gov.uk)

Solutions by Nature, for Nature

Gas Engine Exchange is an equipment supplier specialising in zero hour, surplus and used gas engines, with more than twenty years’ experience in the energy industry. The core of our business is buying and selling zero hour, surplus and used biogas and natural gas generators, as well as other energy-producing equipment.

For a company like ours, the World Biogas Expo is one of the biggest events in the energy calendar and one that Gas Engine Exchange looks forward to each year.

After years of walking the halls, this year Gas Engine Exchange decided to become an exhibitor. It was a great way to meet many interesting and dedicated people working in the industry.

Over the last few years, Gas Engine Exchange has expanded our range of products to include used gas

turbines, used steam turbines, used ORCs and used ancillaries for power plants such as transformers. We have a wide customer base across the world and were therefore pleasantly surprised that so many people had travelled from as far away as Africa, South America and Asia, as well as all over Europe, to attend the expo. It was a good opportunity to see the technologies and products that companies have to offer and to exchange ideas for what the future may hold. We look forward to seeing you next year.

If you are looking to buy or sell a gas engine, please contact us: T +44 (0)7595 426731 ukoffice@gasengineexchange.com

http://www.gasengineexchange.com

Online Lubricants: A UK-based fuels and lubricants distributor

Advanced Bacterial Sciences experienced a busy few days at The World Biogas Expo 2023 earlier this year when its team – located in the Research and Innovation Village, were discussing their pioneering biotech solutions for struvite and vivianite removal, as well as enhanced methane generation potential from hard-todigest AD feedstocks.

ABS is a science-led organisation creating innovative microbial solutions for human and planetary benefit, bringing associated products and services to market. Its entire range is dedicated to resolving issues associated with anaerobic digestion, nitrate-polluted waters including eutrophic freshwaters and marinas, enhanced wastewater treatment at source, degradation of oily sludges and hydrocarbon contamination, and the treatment of ammoniacal nitrogen and fats, oils and greases in blocked urinals and sewers.

Specialising in research and innovation using non-pathogenic microbes, ABS works with farmers providing AD consulting services including analysis and optimisation of current AD plants to improve throughput and efficiency. ABS’ anaerobic digestion product uses a consortium of bacteria and enzymes in a pre-treatment step, which allows the bacteria within the AD plant to effectively degrade difficult lignin and cellulosebearing wastes. This improves the efficiency of the operation, generating more methane, which can be captured to be used in energy production.

Throughout 2023, ABS is working with several farmers to trial their AD-enhancing products, with different agricultural waste feedstocks in the field. These trials will allow the optimisation of the product for common UK feedstocks enhancing methane generation potential and providing farmers with a much easier-to-apply digestate following the AD process.

ABS’s eco-friendly product to dissolve struvite deposits in the feed pipes is non-corrosive and does not negatively impact the AD process. Struvite, an ammoniacal phosphate, forms within the feed pipes causing blockages and must be removed. Using ABS’s approach, AD operators can wash the struvite through the pipe into the AD plant, providing phosphate nutrients to the bioreactor and reducing downtime. Also in development is a product to remove Vivianite, an iron phosphate that forms in the discharge pipes, this will allow the dissolved iron and phosphate to be mixed into the digestor or with the digestate.

ABS also offers a fully encompassing and ongoing AD technical consulting service to support its product development that aids site owners and operators in a number of different areas.

For more information, please see below:

T 01524 481513

sales@abs.eco

https://abs.eco

Since the company first started trading in 1994, Online Lubricants has grown significantly and now has a team of over 50 staff members across four depots in London, Essex, Norfolk, and Northampton. Integral to the company’s success is the philosophy to constantly challenge industry standards when it comes to speedy deliveries and providing outstanding customer service.

Online Lubricants are partnered with Tree-Nation, helping customers offset the carbon that they produce from using their products by planting trees in across the globe. They also offset all the carbon that is produced

by their vehicles and are now carbon-neutral in their operations. Their strong partnership with PetroCanada Lubricants and a readily available supply of their extensive premium range of products enables them to meet customers’ requirements quickly and efficiently, supporting them in overcoming the many challenges that they face in today’s demanding economy.

Online Lubricants offer a fast nationwide delivery service for Fuels, Lubricants, AdBlue, Grease, Coolants, Spill control, Equipment, Tanks, and much more. For more information on the product range and the services on offer, please scan the QR code above or call the Online Lubricants customer services team on: 020 8507 0123.

Silostop Agri, pioneering sustainable feedstock storage

Silostop Agri has been working in the silage storage industry for over 20 years with their unique range of ARK Agri silage clamps, Silostop High Oxygen Barrier (HOB) silage Sheets and Secure Covers silage clamp netting to improve the efficiency of feedstock storage.

Key to the financial and environmental sustainability of crop-fed Biogas plants in the UK is the preservation of silage.

The difference between poor and best possible silage quality can be a potential energy loss of – 20+% For a biogas operator that will directly relate to the volume of

gas produced and the financial viability of the plant.

As well as financial viability

plant managers will also want to consider their sustainability, a 20% loss in feedstock represents a huge environmental impact.

These losses are incurred after the growing and harvesting of the silage crop which will already have generated a significant carbon footprint.

By investing in the Silostop Agri range, particularly their covering systems on existing plants, operators will benefit from proven technology that reduces losses across feedstock storage.

Silostop Agri is always ready to offer operators best practice advice to make the most from their feedstock investment for more information: www.silostop.com

RICS Arbitrator with wealth of tacit surveying knowledge

In this issue of Sustainability Today, we are delighted to announce Crawford’s Chartered Surveyors as our Property Surveying Company of the Month.

Surveyors are instrumental in formulating how we live: from rural villages to metropolitan cities, helping optimise community wellbeing, safe and secure environments and efficient use of valuable resources.

Crawford’s Chartered Surveyors offer expert property surveying particularly for more unusual and specialist property types, including mineral and waste management, water resources, telecoms, development land and general industrial and warehouse property. With over 35 years’ prior property surveying experience, Andrew Crawford is a RICS-qualified Arbitrator and Mediator and member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors President’s Panel of Arbitrators. The company was established in 2021, under the expert helm of Andrew and offers professional guidance throughout the British Isles, Europe and further afield. We spoke to Principal, Andrew to find out more about his highly-regarded work in property surveying, “Within the property types I deal with, I specialise in valuation and expert determination. I regularly act as an Expert Witness in valuation disputes and in Court and Tribunal proceedings: valuing specialist property assets for Company Accounts, Stock Exchange listings, landlord and tenant matters, taxation, valuation disputes in litigation and sales purchase and lettings of specialist property. Within the field of valuation, I deal with

capital and rental valuation of specialist (and general) properties, land planning and compulsory purchase compensation, business rates, taxation valuation. Much of my work is in valuation in ‘untested’ circumstances e.g., emerging legislation.”

The role of an Expert Witness is to provide impartial evidence to the Court or Tribunal. Many disputes can arise within the property sector from, for instance, differing interpretations of contract terms or differing analyses of the evidence relied upon for valuation. Expert Witnesses provide written reports and evidence under cross-examination, if required and in so doing are bound by the strict rules of the Civil Procedure Rules and as Chartered Surveyors: The Practice Rules of the RICS.

In the near future, Crawford’s Chartered Surveyors is looking to further expand the Arbitration and Dispute resolution services including: expansion of independent intermediary advice to parties involved in valuation disputes.

The second area Andrew specialises in is more specialist property areas, as he outlines below, “The company offers specialist knowledge of occupational and operational issues affecting specialist properties we deal with, each of which may have legislation specific to that particular category of property. Understanding of these factors is critical to the assessment of value in respect of a land asset and opportunities may be lost if proper regard is not paid to these factors in the preparation of valuations for whatever purpose.”

“In respect of mineral assets for instance, it is the remit of Minerals Surveyors to focus on the preparation and processing of potential mineral sites; co-ordinating surveys to determine the commercial potential of mining/quarrying, mapping mineral deposits and accurately predicting

Recycling & Waste Management

any adverse environmental impacts and taking these factors into account when assessing the value of the underlying asset. The valuation of waste management assets requires a similar process but one governed by a different regime of regulation and government agencies.”

“Overhead and underground wayleaves and/or easements relate to legally binding agreements between the property owner and the land, allowing for utility companies to lay cables and pipes, with an annual payment paid directly to the property owner. If the property is sold, the wayleave is not automatically transferred to the new owner. In some exceptional cases, utility companies can prevent wayleaves from being terminated. The imposition of a wayleave/easement may sterilise development potential in the land over which the wayleave/easement may run and this may trigger an entitlement to the land owner (or occupier) to compensation payments.”

Crawford’s Chartered Surveyors offer unparalleled, RICS-expert guidance on property surveying and more unusual and specialist property type surveying, in the modern era. Andrew Crawford can bring future-proofed expertise to any valuation dispute for valuation advice in respect of specialist or unusual property types.

For more information, contact Andrew Crawford directly below: T 07969 889779 andrew@crawfordscs.net

Sustainability in the carpet and textile-flooring sector

reusing and recycling their waste materials.

CRUK is the only organisation representing the

carpet and textile-flooring sector in the UK, which is helping to industry to reduce waste, divert waste from landfill and become more

sustainable. Please visit: www.carpetrecyclinguk.com for more information.

Following significant growth in its membership network, Carpet Recycling UK (CRUK) is seeking further engagement from construction, facilities management and flooring sectors to reduce textile flooring waste such as, broadloom carpet, carpet tiles, event carpets and underlay.

The not-for-profit association is now working with 80% of the UK’s carpet and textile flooring manufacturers and distributors, which puts it in a stronger position to represent the sector when it comes to discussions on favourable policy outcomes.

Adnan Zeb-Khan, CRUK Scheme Manager says, “Moving forward, companies will need to demonstrate reductions in the use of new resources, design products with recycling in mind, including methods of identification of material make-up and consideration of reverse logistics for take-back schemes to support reuse and recycling outcomes. Our members are making great strides with many developing products with recycling in mind, from single polymer ranges to ones made with recycled content.”

David Healey, Finance Director of CRUK member Saint Flooring, implemented waste material recycling throughout the company’s nationwide sites in 2019. He says that membership of Carpet Recycling UK is contributing to its sustainability goals and helped achieve annual savings of up to £170,000 annually on disposal costs by

Aliaxis unveils new next generation boundary box to provide unrivalled protection against contaminants

Fluid management solutions provider

Aliaxis has enhanced its Protecta-Line barrier system offering with the introduction of the new Protecta-Line Boundary Box, the only completely plastic boundary box fully approved for contaminated land usage. With homes increasingly being built on brownfield sites that may contain substances harmful to people, it is vital to provide drinking water in a safe and efficient way and avoid the potential danger of exposure to significant surface waters or ground water pollution.

Boundary boxes are designed to house the meter at the boundary between the water main and the domestic supply and this new ProtectaLine solution not only provides a shield against all known contaminants, but it’s the only ‘Grade

B’ load bearing height adjustable boundary box on the market. It is available with a standard lid, as well as three further lid choices: slope, square cowl and fixed.

The Protecta-Line range is the market leading and original barrier pipe system for the safe

Leachate Solutions

transportation of drinking water through areas of contaminated land, or for sites with future potential contamination concerns.

Aliaxis will be showcasing this groundbreaking solution for the first time at Utility Week Live (Stand J16) at the NEC in Birmingham (16th-17th May).

For more information on Aliaxis’ extensive range of water supply solutions, visit: https://bit.ly/ ProtectaLine_BoundaryBox

Contact T +44 (0)330 111 4233 https://www.aliaxis.co.uk

Leachate Solutions is committed to promoting energy efficiency and conservation, with sustainable use of energy, we focus on delivering cost-effective and robust engineering. Using a modern approach that works across the UK in environments within the Water and Waste Water sector such as closed landfills, old coal mines, gasometer tower drainage, and AD BIO systems. We also offer eco friendly technical interventions for problematic sites or site processes, delivering full maintenance packages and services, including smart monitoring systems that can provide a comprehensive system overview and advanced warning of any potential issues.

We problem solve and provide solutions for issues that clients may have. Our comprehensive technical skills set provide consultancy, migration, reverse engineering, plus end to end solutions to the industry. The company also provides a maintenance consultancy service that helps identify and implement cost savings across an entire sector.

Water Treatment Systems: Including Leachate & Landfill

t Pumps and Pumping Equipment

t Pump Maintenance and Management

t Pump Condition Reports

t Non Invasive Flow Meters

– Magflow, Ultrasonic and Doppler

t Level Control Systems

t On-Site Instrument Calibration

t Analytical Services

Contact T 01772 816593 enquiries@leachatesolutions.com

www.leachatesolutions.com

Webasto, Feel the Drive

In this issue of Sustainability Today, we are pleased to feature Webasto as our Automotive Supplier Company of the Month.

Established in 1901, Webasto is globally recognised for being one of the top 100 suppliers to the automotive industry. The headquarters of the company is located in Stockdorf near Munich, Germany, but the company has a presence in more than 50 locations around the world, boasting more than 30 production sites with over 16,000 employees.

Generating around €3.7 billion in sales in 2019 and €4.4 billion in 2022, Webasto’s worldwide success follows an upwards trajectory year on year which showcases the strength and depth of the company’s integrity, work ethic and innovation that has integral to its success.

In the beginning, Webasto produced stamped parts, wire holders and home appliances. Over time, the company has grown its product

Webasto’s strong positions in its existing markets gives them the strength to develop new products, and one area that the company has been focusing on lately is the Thermal Management of e-Vehicles. Webasto is convinced that the future belongs to electric mobility, which is why they are using their own in-house automotive technology expertise to drive forwards the development of future-proof batteries for passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

From local small series production to multiproduct-lines for medium volumes and specialised individual production lines for mass production, Webasto can adapt its existing UK plants to best serve customers here.

The Webasto CV standard battery system is designed for the commercial vehicle market and offers robust packaging, automotive standard design, zero compromise to quality, and an efficient cooling interface. Webasto has coupled the battery with Samsung SDI state-of-the-art cell technology enabling it to be the perfect fit for all commercial vehicles.

extended warranty is something that comes completely unrivalled in the industry. In fact, all our solutions meet the highest quality, safety and performance standards far beyond automotive requirements.”

development with a current product portfolio that comprises of in-house developed roof systems, heating and cooling systems for various types of vehicles, batteries and charging solutions for hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as complementary services relating to thermo management and electromobility.

The UK subsidiary resides in Doncaster, which is known as the only UK Thermo & Comfort location, alongside the roof division that is based in Birmingham. In the UK, the main focus is to provide heating, cooling, EV charging and vehicle batteries mainly for the automotive, off-highway, and marine sectors, serving customers who are converters and builders of vehicles and boats.

The CV standard battery has been designed for light, medium and heavy duty, as well as on and off-road requirements. Its innovative technology means it brings an off-the-shelf solution to reality,

Another advantage of working with Webasto is its commitment and continued effort to Go Greener, and in addition to technological progress, Webasto is dedicated to its ecological responsibility. Throughout the entire development line, from production through to product cycle and the delivering/installing of the end product itself, Webasto is always actively working with various initiatives and projects to reduce its carbon footprint.

and with modularity being one of its core design principles, there is no doubt that Webasto will fit in your commercial vehicle application.

Webasto also has an in-house electronics development centre that is used for testing and validation to ensure reduced time-to-market from pre-development to the start of series production.

When we asked David Stafford, Commercial Manager of Customised Solutions for the Webasto Group what makes their services stand out from competitors, he responded saying, “The fact that we offer a fully bespoke design service and

One example of this is from its Schierling plant where a large part of the energy requirement is supplied by the company’s own photovoltaic system that gives an output of up to 750kWp, meaning battery production can be supplied 100% by solar energy. Furthermore, since 2014, when the company installed a 2MW combined heat and power plant, the PV system has become a key component of Webasto’s overall strategy for sustainable battery production. This is a strategy that Webasto is keen to continue into the coming years with all sites being continuously developed using sustainability as its guiding principle.

Another area that Webasto is keen to explore further is the development of more electrified applications. Shaping new technologies for the mobility of tomorrow, and to get better at it every day

is what drives Webasto. Being a systems partners to almost all automotive manufacturers including KIA, Ford, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Bentley, Toyota, and many more means that designing energy-efficient electric vehicles can be a challenging task when so many adaptations are needed. However, Webasto have the right tools to not only combat the high and fluctuating energy demand for thermal management, but to continue innovating and developing products that solve key impact areas of thermal management on battery performance such as the battery health and slow power output due to changing temperatures. Climate conditions, energy management and driving characteristics all have a direct result to the available driving range, and Webasto is keen to explore all the technological options to ensure it keeps creating and designing only the best automotive products for the automotive industry.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Webasto and its products, please see below: T 01302 322232 https://www.webasto.co.uk

The first UK based company to create an autonomous mobile logistics robot and solution that tackles the labour challenges at soft fruit farms

Founded in 2017, Fox Robotics Limited was the brain child of Henry Acevedo, who had the idea of increasing efficiency in warehouses and 3 PLs (Third Party Logistics) using an autonomous robot that could not only find the best route when delivering items around the warehouse but could also follow workers as a self-driving cart.

Fox Robotics saw the opportunity to adapt its technology and apply it to the horticulture and agriculture industries, and there began

the development of Hugo RT™. Fox Robotics understands the needs and challenges that come from the operations of soft fruit farms and has developed this logistics Autonomous Mobile Robot specialised for agriculture. Hugo RT™ –with RT standing for Rough Terrain, is designed to safely assist human pickers in the field, as well as farmers and managers all year round in and out of season with a durable, efficient and sustainable robot solution designed to maximise picker productivity.

AGRIBOTS FOR A SCARCE WORKFORCE

Fox Robotics is dedicated to understanding the challenges and operations of soft fruit farms.

Fox Robotics has developed a logistics Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) specialised for agriculture, with a primary focus on soft fruit. Hugo RTTM (Rough Terrain) robot has been designed to safely assist human pickers in the field. Supporting farmers and managers all-year-round in season and out of season operations. Hugo RTTM is a durable, efficient, and sustainable robot, that transports picked produce anywhere on the farm.

Please visit www.fox-robotics.com

The company is based in Surrey and has now partnered with Lutton farms and other farms across the UK, to who have helped to provide extensive real-life data and support to train Hugo RT™.

The robot supports pickers by transporting empty trays to them, collecting picked produce from pickers, and delivering it to any collection point.

The autonomous fully electric robot will be used by farmers as an alternative to fuel powered

machinery, to transport any type of load. It is ideal for outdoor, polytunnel use and in all types of weather to improve productivity and efficiency.

Fox Robotics will be supporting other areas in horticulture in the foreseeable future.

For more information, please see below: https://fox-robotics.com

Improve your productivity with Heath Engineering

Heath Engineering was a stand-out exhibitor at this year’s LAMMA Show 2023. Visitors and fellow industry professionals gathered to its stand where they could witness and test a range of innovative British-manufactured equipment for the Farming industry.

Heath Engineering has been producing agricultural equipment for over 70 years and is held in high regard for building machines that do the job and last. Carrying an ethos that is to provide the best possible service at competitive prices, Heath Engineering is one of the most leading, forwardthinking companies in the agricultural sector.

Heath has its own branded range of machinery that is vast and covers a number

of applications. These include Bale grabs and bale handling equipment, to a range of trailers to suit all needs. Alongside this, Heath also offer a bespoke lorry body and drags service built to customer requirements.

If you’re looking for high-quality, Britishmanufactured equipment including trailers, bale handlers and grain and silage tippers, Heath Engineering can help.

To get in touch, please see below:

T 01608 682062

pete@heathengineering.co.uk

https://heathengineering.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/ heathengineeringuk

B Price Mus-Max Specialist Ltd

B Price Mus-Max Specialist Ltd are the sole UK agent for Mus-Max woodchippers, which is one of the leading manufacturers for the biomass industry in Europe. We offer both new and used machine sales and also supply genuine Mus-Max parts and maintenance. We pride ourselves on our 24-hour breakdown service and are always at the end of the phone for help and assistance.

Mus-Max have been manufacturing woodchippers since 1994. Mus-Max woodchippers are easy to operate and maintain, have a long operating life and benefit from low diesel consumption.

The drum chopping technology ensures the production of consistently highquality wood chip. Chippers are available in either PTO driven or self-propelled versions and the range is extensive, starting from the WT7 machine leading right up to the WT12, which is the largest PTO woodchipper in the world.

With decades of operational experience,

design and research embedded in every machine, customers can be confident that their reliability is second to none. With more and more companies looking at ways to expand and diversify and the recent growth in the biomass industry, now is the ideal time to find out how a Mus-Max woodchipper could assist you in generating new sources of income. For further details, please contact B Price Mus-Max Specialist Ltd: T 01584 891307 M 07518 810269 ben7810.bp@outlook.com

Oil, Gas & Offshore New Oliver Hydrogen Transportation Valves are about time

Oliver Hydcovalves have announced the design and manufacture of three new valves for hydrogen transportation and refuelling. Using high performance polymer bearings and seals in partnership with DuPont™, valves have been qualification tested to 102,000 cycles of operation while maintaining a fugitive emissions leakage class of BH.

Another unique feature of the valves is their full-bore design. This avoids restrictive flow, which appears to be a common problem in many valves on the market.

As the world continues to move towards sustainable energy sources, hydrogen is emerging as the promising fuel option for vehicles and industrial transportation on land, sea, and air. The transporting and dispensing of hydrogen fuel in working environments such as fuel stations and onsite fuel storage facilities, require specialist valves that have been designed and engineered for continuous high cycle operative use and meet the requirements of ISO 19880-3.

When dispensing hydrogen fuel onsite, it generally requires a large area to be closed off while in progress, and can even involve a whole site closure, dependent on size of area.

Therefore, the time it takes to dispense hydrogen fuel is crucial.

Bore sizes include; 10mm, 14mm and 20mm.

To learn more about hydrogen transportation and for guidance on hydrogen specifications, applications, qualifications and pricing, contact Oliver Hydcovalves on: +44 (0)1565 632636 or visit their website at: www.valves.co.uk

SoundCam 2.0

Imagine how easy it would be to deal with troublesome sound sources, if you could see them overlaid on a camera image. This amazing technology has been around for more

AQUA Safety Showers: Experts in our field

When it comes to the safety of workers out in the field, we are the people to contact when it comes to emergency safety showers and eye wash stations. It isn’t just about the end product. We will recommend and advise you on the best safety shower solution to suit your requirements. As there is no one-fits-all approach we have the flexibility to adapt or modify our units in our manufacturing facility in Great Britain.

Our range of emergency products and equipment offers protection against serious injury and are all built to exceed ANSI/EN safety standards. While we hope there is never the need for your safety showers to be used, having one is imperative on site should be working around harmful substances. Our goal is to create essential pieces of equipment that become the standard in every laboratory and facility that uses harmful substances.

Are you properly prepared in case of an emergency?

Aqua Safety Showers can keep your workers safe with our wide range of products and units available. For a bespoke quotation or free site survey, please get in touch with our dedicated sales team today.

T +44 (0)1942 318096

sales@aqua-safety.com

www.facebook.com/aquasafetyshowers www.linkedin.com/company/ aqua-safety-showers-international-ltd www.youtube.com/channel/ UC2IeWZzOlQDOrQiWVGYtYRw

Improving safety of at-home medical devices

Healthcare organisations are seeking solutions to treat patients in home care settings to reduce the burden on traditional healthcare facilities. While this approach improves patient comfort and convenience, it can be difficult to manage compared to a controlled clinical setting where care is administered by trained medical professionals. When a home medical device manufacturer approached industrial heating technology manufacturer Watlow, for a thermal solution for its home hemodialysis device, Watlow delivered an innovative solution that not only met requirements for size and safety, but also improved the overall system.

According to the National Kidney Federation, around 30,000 people are on hemodialysis in the UK. Hemodialysis is the procedure where blood is cleaned using a dialysis machine with a filter acting as an artificial kidney.

In-home care allows for more frequent treatment, improving patient outcomes while reducing the overall cost of therapy. In the medical device market, this trend has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, it has increased the demand for certain medical devices. On the other, it has led to greater scrutiny of devices and increasingly stringent safety standards. Measures used to increase safety precautions are often at odds with the need to make home care devices smaller and more portable than those used in a clinical setting.

Watlow has extensive experience understanding how to meet the required trade-offs and develop a design suitable for many applications. Visit the website to find out more: www.watlow.com

than a decade, but only now have reductions in price, complexity and size enabled its widespread use.

The SoundCam 2.0 is a unique, new product which makes noise source location as easy and portable as using a video camera, requiring no acoustic expertise or training. It is waterproof, battery powered and has a touch screen that anyone can master in minutes.

We must do all we can to slow down climate change by saving energy and CO2. That’s why our SoundCam 2.0 and our smaller SoundCam ULTRA models now have ultrasonic

Industrial

microphones, that make them super sensitive for finding compressed air leaks, and saving $$$ on energy

You can also solve Health and Safety (noise) problems, find worn bearings on your production critical machines, as well as make your product the quietest on the market. It’s easy to reduce workplace noise if you can see instantly where the loudest sources are. In seconds, you can have video proof of the origins and levels of noise, and initiate and verify improvements. For the acoustic experts, we also have the modular BIONIC series of acoustic cameras, with advanced specifications and prices that nobody can come close to.

We also offer rental, and consulting services. With this unique technology, we can solve your noise problems faster than anyone else! As UK distributor for CAE Software and Systems GmbH, the market leader worldwide, we supply quality made in Germany directly from our UK base in Coventry.

SoundCam UK (www.soundcam.uk), is a trading name of Acoustic Camera UK Ltd. the UK distributor for acoustic cameras and accessories from CAE Systems GmbH, Made in Germany.

Manufacturing reinvented

Capitalising on the benefits of 3D printing technology can drive down costs in manufacturing. With potentially limitless applications for plastic and metal printers modern manufacturing companies aren’t short of places to start.

Throughout time, manufacturing companies have needed to adapt to survive and the 2020’s are set to be no different, writes Ian Weston, Managing Director at Mark3D UK. Constant demands from management to identify and drive down costs means today’s engineers must be more adventurous and creative to realise valuable cost savings.

Many in the manufacturing sector, especially in engineering, believe ‘the easy wins went long ago.’ However, I’m not so sure. Over the last five years we have seen a number of agile, entrepreneurial, high-tech companies

start up, or morph from their current position, to offer today’s engineers a host of modern technology that can help drive down costs. Known as ‘Industry 4.0,’ they present a range of offerings covering design automation and iteration, production monitoring software with real-time logic-based decisions and even, bearing in mind it has been around for some 30 years, good old-fashioned 3D printing.

The market moves very quickly and 3D printing for engineers has improved tremendously in recent years. The technology now offers engineers affordable printers with strong materials and predictable results, yet it often struggles to be taken seriously in the boardroom. While early 3D printers did a great job in raising awareness of the technology, they had an equally adverse effect because of the items people chose

to print with them. Green men and games characters fail to cut it in the engineering board room.

The opportunity for excellent return on investment (RoI) is there, if production engineers know where to find it. Simply borrowing a printer from the design office and expecting immediate cost savings is not realistic. Design office printers use different materials and technology compared to those used by engineers. Printing-savvy engineers know

Specialist solutions

We take pride in overseeing the entire manufacturing process, from design, prototyping and manufacture to delivery, installation, full product certification and after-sales service

Drallim is an innovative technology driven British engineering company with global presence. With experience in providing comprehensive turnkey assembly & test solutions covering electronic, electromechanical, engineering, and mechanical products. We offer our customers a total contract manufacturing service, offering design, and manufacturing solutions, providing engineering skills, manufactured equipment & custom-built systems for the aerospace, industrial and utility markets.

Product realisation: Prototyping and new product introductions

From the initial enquiry, our Business Development Team analyses the specifications and requirements of a product or project and issues a comprehensive and detailed quotation. When an order is received, a project plan is then developed; our team uses detailed documentation, engineering change and reporting control to ensure continued information integrity. An experienced project manager acts as the interface between Drallim and our customers although, at the same time, we actively encourage engineer-to-engineer communication. We have had customers’ engineers based at our headquarters signing off drawings as they are produced to meet urgent deadlines for manufacture. The designated project manager ensures that resources are allocated appropriately and that all tasks are tracked and recorded. The result is a controlled transition into the manufacturing process.

Design support

When it comes to product manufacturing, a substantial proportion of the end product’s total cost is determined at the design stage. As a result, this part of the manufacturing process presents the perfect opportunity to identify improvements that will lead to cost reductions. A thorough understanding of each element will enable the product to be designed and optimised for procurement, manufacturing and test. We provide an extensive Design for Manufacture service to help our customers achieve substantial improvements, including:

● Improved manufacturing productivity

● Enhanced product quality and reliability

● Minimal/simplified maintenance

● Lower cost

● Reduced time to market

that 3D printing is far more valuable to businesses outside of the design office, rather than within it, typically realising the RoI in around three months.

www.mark3d.com

● Increased customer satisfaction

● Manufacturing

● Precision assembly

We regularly produce complex assemblies that demand high levels of skill, precision, accuracy and consistency. The engineering and manufacturing teams at Drallim are highly skilled in this type of work, with awareness of critical engineering tolerances when producing assemblies of this complexity. Our skills base extends to include testing of electrical, electronic, mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic assemblies. Following rigorous approval processes, Drallim’s supply chain partners for custom parts, such as plastics, machined and fabricated metalwork, etc, are monitored closely for quality and delivery performance. Tight control of the material supply chain ensures the availability of high quality mechanical parts is maintained for timely production.

Electrical assembly

Many of the assemblies produced require wire and cable interconnection between boards and sub-assemblies. This can be via cable forms or point to point wiring. As part of our electro-mechanical assembly service, we are often called on to produce products that require critical cable routing. We also undertake electrical wiring of switch and instrument panels plus sophisticated control cabinets. We have highly trained engineering and assembly teams to assist with design and the assembly and support for all your cable and loom requirements.

● Electro-mechanical Assembly

● Pneumatic & Hydraulic Assembly

● Racks & Cabinets

● Box-Build Assembly

● PCB Assembly

● Prototype Wiring

● Cable Assembly

● Testing

So, if you are interested in British manufacturing and looking for a contract manufacturer, we are sure Drallim can meet your needs. Please visit: www.drallim.com

SIC Marking UK now have record working dimensions with the new XXL-Box laser marking enclosure

After the huge success of the L-BOX and XL-BOX, our compact marking stations, we have been asked on numerous occasions to offer a larger workspace in order to be able to mark large parts. These are the words of Eric B. Marketing and Sales Director at SIC MARKING, world leader in industrial traceability, to justify the launch of the new XXL-BOX Laser Marking Station.

Available in 3 basic sizes at a very competitive price, the XXL-BOX perfectly complements SIC MARKING’s laser workstation wide range of products, which makes it possible to meet all customer requirements in terms of cabinet size.

As its name indicates, the new XXL-BOX station offers record working dimensions (up to 520mm high) as well as great modularity thanks to its 3 standard models (800, 1,200 and 1,600mm wide) and it’s numerous accessories.

Requested by a large number of customers, the new XXL-Box Laser Marking Station has met a great success with ETIs and large companies manufacturing large parts or sub-assemblies such as shafts, valve or pump bodies, crankcase, exhaust components but also bodywork subassemblies. It is not surprising to find it in the sectors in which SIC MARKING is already active: Automotive, Aeronautics, Industrial Vehicles, Hydraulics, Oil & Gas… Please call: 01926 830372 for further details or email us on: salesuk@sic-marking.com.

Asynt: Global Laboratory Equipment Manufacturer

At Asynt, we are committed to investing in new technologies that respond to the real demands of global industry and academia. Providing worldleading solutions for scientific research, Asynt’s unique range of innovative products and services are developed by chemists for chemists and are effective, sustainable, and safe.

Key examples include the versatile DrySyn oil-free heating and cooling blocks that provide brilliant thermal performance without the associated risks of using standard oil-based systems and the Asynt CondenSyn waterless air-condenser, which, when teamed with the DrySyn range, will not only help reduce your environmental impact, but will also save you money.

Our other areas of expertise include sample preparation, pressure reactors, parallel synthesis, Flow Chemistry, Photochemistry, evaporation and purification tools alongside our fully-customisable ReactoMate lab reactor systems for scale-up from 100mL up to 100L, providing a safe and simple solution to your process development needs.

In addition to Asynt’s own product ranges, we work with a wide range of key manufacturers to provide a one-stopshop for all your required laboratory apparatus. Asynt also offer a full-bespoke design & engineering service where, using the latest technology, we work closely with scientists to create exciting new products, which meet a previously unfulfilled requirement.

T +44 (0)1638 781709 enquiries@asynt.com www.asynt.com

How to make PDC drill bits work in geothermal drilling

Geothermal energy can become a key component of the global energy mix, but it only accounts for about 1% of total energy production today. Some of the reasons behind slow development of geothermal energy are that drilling for geothermal heat is challenging, expensive, and requires specialised equipment. The drill bit is especially

critical for success, and traditional designs are not always suitable for the high temperatures and hard rock encountered underground.

To address this issue, Zerdalab, a UK-based engineering company, is at the forefront of PDC drill bit development for geothermal applications. We enable local manufacturing to reduce costs, carbon emissions, and lead times.

We are also developing machine-learning-enabled, physics-based processes that match the cutting structure to each application’s challenges quickly and objectively to ensure the bit’s best possible performance.

Another key focus of our development is a bit’s rapid repairability and reusability, which will help to drive the cost of drilling down and improve the economic viability of geothermal projects. All of the above can make geothermal drilling more economically viable and reduce its carbon footprint, accelerating the growth of geothermal energy production. PDC drill bits offer a promising solution for the challenges of geothermal drilling. By improving efficiency, reducing costs, and boosting sustainability, they can support the transition to renewable energy.

M +44 (0)7549 980407

info@zerdalab.com

www.zerdalab.com

Digital employee recognition scheme increases morale and productivity

GP helpline and pension contributions in an easy-to-use platform.

“We are the only provider in the market who offers one platform for recognition and benefits.”

It is commonly accepted that workplace morale is intrinsically linked to productivity and retention. With the current cost-of-living crisis rocketing basic food and energy bills, Terryberry is helping UK businesses ride the storm.

gifts such as luxury hampers or unique experience days for their most valued employees.

School children aren’t the only ones who thrive under positive peer-to-peer recognition, adult employees blossom under recognition culture schemes. We all want to know we’re doing a good job; positive recognition bolsters self-esteem and superchargers dopamine. It’s a win-win scenario: employees feel good, will stay in their jobs and continue working hard. Managers benefit from a happy workplace, with staff who feel valued and will go the extra mile.

of all sizes, with the aim to help as many people as possible save money and look after all areas of their wellbeing, reducing stress and creating a much happier workplace.

Award-winning Terryberry was established in 1918 by H.R. Terryberry and the family-run business continues to trade from its headquarters in Michigan, USA. Now with 30 locations worldwide, the company is set to continue its global growth portfolio.

The UK Terryberry offices are in Macclesfield and Cardiff. We spoke to Ben Pritchard, Head of Marketing, to find out more, “The main role of the company is to engage and reward employees and help a business to succeed by using the power of recognition.

“We offer an all-in-one benefits, reward and recognition platform, including milestone and service awards, lifestyle savings, salary sacrifice, cycle to work, 24 hour

The 360 Employee Recognition software and platform incorporates four aspects into one integrated digital hub: employee benefits, milestones and service awards, social recognition and wellness.

The employee benefit section allows managers and HR staff to incentivise staff through a range of benefits from private healthcare, life insurance and GP helplines, employee perks such as retail discounts and wellbeing schemes such as cycle to work schemes. There is even a subsection for Christmas gifts; allowing managers to select allocated budgets and let employees choose vouchers from a range of high street outlets. This is guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of hard-working teams during the festive season.

The milestones and service awards are reserved for retirement celebrations and service awards. Gone are the days of handing out gold plated engraved clocks or watches; companies want a wider, eclectic choice of

The last section is wellness, with Terryberry offering services to support an employee’s physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Through support with Mental health and wellness, to online gym classes, and help with managing your finances.

The 360 Employee Recognition software and platform offers HR departments and business leaders an integrated digital hub to look after the basics: everyday workplace morale with customised calendar events for Christmas, Birthdays and retirement occasions. This leaves more times for managers to come up with valuable team building sessions, whether that’s in the boardroom or in the pub!

In 2021, Terryberry partnered with the UK Government on their Help for Households scheme, launching Help for Employees, an easy-to-use offers and discounts platform that is being made available to businesses

Ben Pritchard tells us more about their customers, “We can help companies with as little as 10 employees, through to large multi-national corporations. We are focused on maximum employee engagement: through rewarding, employees will succeed.

“Our programme is perfect for employees who are hybrid or remotely working, offering a one-stop-shop for benefits, wellbeing and recognition, that goes beyond simply financial rewards.”

To start prioritising your employees’ wellbeing today, see the details below:

T +44 (0)344 826 2008 www.terryberry.com/gb

Choosing an ‘Industrial Vacuum Cleaner’

The vacuum cleaner market is vast and the number of different machines available is immense giving a potential customer a dilemma when trying to choose a machine to solve a particular problem. The machines available range from the cheapest units manufactured from the thinnest and flimsiest materials and churned out on production lines in various parts of the world, to small production, specialist machines manufactured to satisfy the most demanding requirements.

BVC (the original British Vacuum Cleaners) is a brand manufactured by Quirepace Ltd very much in the latter category; just as there is always a market for traditional, specialist cars, discerning customers for Industrial Vacuum Cleaners will undoubtedly find a solution within the BVC range.

With the exception of a small range of budget units (the BVC Greenline range) targeted at light duty applications, BVC Industrial Vacuum Cleaners are manufactured in the UK from predominantly UK

sourced components. Quirepace operate their own press shop for many of the metal pressings used in production, and components such as fabrications and castings are sourced from local specialist suppliers.

UK manufacture means that Quirepace are not only able to keep very close control of the whole process from design to delivery, it also means that every machine in the BVC Industrial Vacuum Cleaner range can be manufactured to the customers specification.

In the world of industrial processing, materials to be cleaned are inevitably incredibly diverse; some products are hazardous to health if breathed in in significant quantities, some are potentially explosive and require ATEX rated equipment. Other materials might be heavy (eg. aggregates) or abrasive, or sticky, or wet. Whatever the application there will most likely be an appropriate BVC machine available.

It is difficult to pick an Industrial Vacuum Cleaner at

random & hope that it is suitable. Sometimes people compare machines by their maximum flow rate, or perhaps maximum vacuum, without realising that these are a very poor guide to real-world performance. Maximum vacuum is measured with zero flow, and maximum flow with zero (or little) vacuum, and hence these figures do not give a reliable indication of actual performance. Quirepace’s specialist sales team offer on-site demonstrations at the customer’s premises so that performance can be evaluated.

Selecting an Industrial Vacuum Cleaner isn’t just about the machine itself. There will be choices to be made in the type of filter to be used and the tools and hoses required to attach to the vacuum unit. BVC Industrial Vacuum Cleaners are all available with several choices of filter material. Apart from standard microfibre bag filters, Quirepace offer ‘Clearflow’ filters; a special design with a huge surface area which helps to maintain flow without blinding, PTFE coated materials for sticky products, fire-resistant materials, anti-static materials for ATEX applications and of course various

standards of HEPA filters for hazardous dusts.

Industrial Vacuum Cleaners require Industrial Tools. Many tools in the BVC range are heavy duty metal castings and fabrications designed for long life in an aggressive industrial environment. High quality tooling ensures that the performance of the Industrial Vacuum Cleaner gets to where it is needed reliably time after time for many years. For those tools that have wear parts – like the rubber strips on the heavy duty height adjustable floor tools, of course Quirepace have local stocks of spare parts. The BVC range from Quirepace offers heavy duty, durable and reliable Industrial Vacuum Cleaners for all applications, backed up by a knowledgeable and experienced sales team and an extensive service and parts department.

Contact Quirepace to discuss your requirements:

T 023 9260 3700

BVCsales@quirepace.co.uk www.quirepace.co.uk

UNISIG’s approach to automating surgical instrument manufacturing

As surgical instrument manufacturers pursue greater throughput while facing increased labour costs, automating the medical instrument manufacturing process has become a necessity. However, integrating automation into the gundrilling process for drilling deep holes in extremely precise surgical instruments in lights-out operation is a major engineering challenge requiring more than simply pairing a robot with a deep-hole drilling machine.

The right machine, tools and process must all come together to create small holes with extreme precision in difficult-to-machine materials such as titanium and surgical stainless steel. More importantly, the entire system must flow from a unified concept where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

To meet these challenges, UNISIG developed its UNE6-2i-750-CR dual independent spindle gundrilling machine. The UNE6-2i is capable of gundrilling hole diameters ranging from 0.8-6mm in part lengths measuring up to 30 inches with depth-to-diameter ratios from 20:1 to more than 100:1. The machine has a maximum combined drilling speed of 28,000rpm and a 3,000psi (207) bar programmable flow-based coolant system with dedicated pumps for each spindle to ensure precise coolant pressure control.

Automating hundreds of cycles of precision manufacturing, however, is not possible unless the overall operation is considered from the outset.

Surgical instrument manufacturing is a sequential process: parts must be loaded into the machine in a particular way for specific operations that happen in a specific order.

Workpiece length, shape and configuration determine where it is gripped by the robot when loaded into a machine, moved from spindle to spindle for drilling, residual cutting fluid removed, and returned to the pallet. Where a part is gripped impacts where it is clamped for drilling to ensure accuracy. Every variable along the process chain must be considered and accounted for, and the calculus is detailed and complicated.

a menu-driven touch screen system for easy, intuitive operation. Training and operator engagement with the system is significantly reduced due to user-friendly UNISIG controller menus and prompts.

UNISIG’s comprehensive and integrated approach to automating medical part manufacturing is a vision that sets it apart in the industry. It’s more than drilling the

impossible hole. It’s a commitment to understanding and to the research that drives continuous improvement and innovation for automated part production at its full potential.

Further information on all machines and the complete UNISIG machine programme is available at: www.unisig.com or follow the company on LinkedIn

Then there are unique customer needs and requirements. The equipment and process must accommodate a variety of part families and hundreds of parts to increase runtime and efficiency. Operators must be able to change over part types and programming without calling in an automation specialist, and the entire process must be controlled from a central interface. Add to the mix that everything must be packaged in as small a footprint as possible, and the scope of the engineering challenge comes into focus.

UNISIG’s approach to solving these problems, however, results in targeted automation that enhances the existing benefits of gundrilling, ensuring a solid foundation for reliable process-wide automation.

At its core, the automated UNE6-2i is a purpose-built machine with automation embedded in its design, not added as an afterthought. Flexibility and adaptability are maximised by a harmonious, interdependent mechanical, software & operational planning scheme.

To meet size constraints, a 6-axis robot was embedded in the machine with a pallet system on the backside of the machine, allowing easy operator access from the front to setup the machine without compromising ergonomics. The configuration enables quick setup changes between prototype and proving operations and full production runs.

The robot automatically repositions the workpiece from the front of the first spindle into the rear of the second spindle without operator input. The process of drilling a part from both ends in a single-piece flow is unique to UNISIG. Workpieces with enlarged features on one side are loaded from the rear of the collet, solving a common problem in gundrilling medical surgical instruments with full automation.

Control of the UNE6-2i and a computer are consolidated into the Human Machine Interface (HMI),

and Twitter (@UNISIG). You will also meet us at the EMO 2023 show in Hannover, Germany, from 18th23rd September.

The future of work ergonomics: Flexible Office Spaces

Business and Industry Today is pleased to feature Love Mondays as its Office Search Consultancy Company of the Month.

As a society, we’re conditioned to hate Mondays: trudging back to our jobs with the ‘weekend blues.’

According to HRD, the Human Resources company, a whooping 81% of employees loathe the first day of the working week. But what if we instead, learned to love Mondays?

This is the question that founder, Jimmie Brennan of Love Mondays Office Space is asking.

Love Mondays Office Space is a bespoke office consultancy company, ideally placed to find the perfect UK location and space for every budget, from church conversions in Shoreditch to prime Wellington Place office spaces in Leeds.

this up. A survey of a 1,000 UK working adults found that 77% of applicants research the company’s sustainability record or employee engagement before applying for jobs.

High salaries don’t cut it anymore: 57% of applicants are looking at workplace culture over salary.

Simply put, the way we are working is changing: four-day weeks, hybrid working, and office perks like gyms, social programmes and meditation spaces. It’s way beyond the office cooler now: employees are driving demand for not just work-life balance but workday balance.

“The concept of Flexible Office Space hasn’t just illuminated employers post-COVID, the reality is that larger cities like London acclimatised years ago. It’s a growth market12-15% of London’s buildings have Flexible Office Space functionality already and it’s growing at a rate of 3% annually,” instructs Jimmie.

Although media headlines still promote ‘The office is dead’ scaremongering: parading the demise of office spaces, in lieu of cosy home-working, the reality couldn’t be more different as Jimmie demonstrates, “We’ve all heard buzz-words like: hybrid working, remote working, hot desking, and coworking. The truth is that we’re all social creatures and crave interaction with others, even if it’s Dave from accounts with his questionable ties and love of peanut butter sandwiches.”

“Most workers struggled during COVID furloughing: we’re not used to be so isolated – we thrive on togetherness, group mindsets and team goals.”

“What we offer benefits the whole office culture: from top-tobottom, worker to CEO.”

“Imagine a five-star all-inclusive cruise versus a caravan in a field in Devon – our company operates on a similar model.”

“We offer a free detailed, bespoke consultancy service, offering a report of suitable locations, and then will offer to negotiate on your behalf, saving precious time and resources.”

Company building rental costs are the second highest overhead, often giving the management teams headaches and sleepless nights and what employers often need is detailed knowledge of the lease property market.

staying longer and becoming mastery in those job roles. Our physical, visual environment is so important to our mental wellbeing during the day.

Employers are taking this on board and looking at everything from stand-up desks, windows that optimise natural daylight, to providing regular, inclusive, social programmes.”

With Jimmie Brennan at the helm though, this is no ordinary brokering company.

“Simon Sinek is my Business Guru: I’m interested in ethical leadership and integrity, not soulless manipulation of businesses during a cost-of-living crisis.”

Jimmie comes across, like his idol as a visionary: he wants workers to love their work environments, stemmed from managers driven to think creatively about next-generational workspaces.

“We all know the Amercian ‘water-cooler’ momentsepitomised in many 90’s movies – where white-collar workers would have a breaktime epiphany, moved to tears by a random conversation with a colleague.”

“As a child, I would point to tall, dreary looking Georgian buildings, asking my mum, ‘what’s that?’ My mum would reply succinctly, ‘That is: work.’”

“Many of us grow up thinking work equates to an uncomfortable shirt and a tie in a mundane office job, forever trapped in a soulless labyrinth of offices and corridors, until we die. But it doesn’t need to be like that and there are many companies offering more incentives than salary now, to attract the right candidates.”

A survey from hppy: employee engagement company backs

“Flexible Office Space offers you the opportunity to lease properties in desirable, central locations, with full furnishings, down to the LED lighting, to unfurnished one floor properties, where you can run riot with design flair, adding bespoke art work or games rooms.”

After establishing the exact size of the office space, for the exact number of employees, often a variable number, depending on hybrid working patterns, Jimmie will ask further questions around working styles: do you require a front of house reception, meeting rooms, breakaway rooms, and can some rooms have multi-purpose functionality – prayer room, meditation space and occasional meeting room?

“In my previous jobs, with the property brokering industry: what drove me to work was the social interaction with others – either in meetings with colleagues or at work-based gyms before or after work.”

“The ergonomics of the workplace culture are shifting: employees that are happy at work will work harder: often

“On a macro-level, companies are investing in more sustainable building practice, in line with the UK Government’s 2050 net zero targets, as Jimmie illustrates, “We have a wide range of Flexible Office Spaces that utilise renewable energy strategies such as ground/air source heat pumps, and solar panels. Some spaces are kitted out with reclaimed wooden tables and chairs made from recycled materials. We know that environmental sustainability is important to many businesses and across many of our UK spaces, there are many SMART building options and IIoT advancements.”

Love Mondays Office Space has already taken the industry by storm: Jimmie won the OSiT Office Space in Town Broker Award, impressing the judges with his detailed geographical knowledge, and forensic knowledge of urban office spaces. Don’t just take our word for it: Jimmie’s customers love him: leaving rave five-star Google reviews, praising his industrious work ethic, excellent negotiation skills and high-profile contacts.

Tom Smith: Group Director at Cooper White Group commended Jimmie’s astute financial knowledge of the Flexible Office Space market, allowing him to make informed decisions about what a lease budget pays for in real-term values.

James Thom: Group Head of Procurement & Supply Chain Management at Santa Fe Relocation, said working under guidance from Love Mondays Office Space has shown him the, ‘vast, numerous benefits of using Flexible Office Space.’

For an informal chat about the benefits of Flexible Office Space working, talk to Jimmie Brennan on: +44 (0)208 050 6864

info@lovemondaysofficespace.com

https://www.lovemondaysofficespace.com

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ jimmie-brennan-office-space-expert

https://www.facebook.com/people/ Love-Mondays-Office-Space/100084164645772

https://www.instagram.com/lovemondaysofficespace