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In alignment with Scottish Government guidance on the coronavirus situation, the organisers of SPE Offshore Europe have made the difficult decision to postpone the event on 1-4 February 2022 at P&J Live, Aberdeen.

Jonathan Heastie, Portfolio Director – Energy & Marine at RX (Reed Exhibitions), co-organiser with the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) of SPE Offshore Europe said: “The health and safety of our exhibitors, attendees and staff is our priority. We were excited for the return of SPE Offshore Europe to Aberdeen in February 2022, but it is clear that it would not be in the best health and safety interests of our community to go ahead. The decision is made with a heavy heart and thanks for the wonderful support from exhibitors and all those who had been working so hard to make the show a success. The full conference and exhibition will be postponed to 5-8 September 2023.

“It is a complex process to postpone such a large event and we will be in touch directly with our exhibitors and stakeholders in  the coming days. Bookings for exhibition space for February 2022 will be guaranteed for September 2023.”

Mr Heastie signalled that a smaller, themed event may be staged later in 2022 if industry demand is sufficient: “We will have discussions with industry and our stakeholders about the possibility of holding an event focused on the energy transition in Aberdeen later in 2022. This would build on the extensive, high-quality content that we had lined up for February to support a fair energy transition.”

www.offshore-europe.co.uk

The higher education provider has been granted ‘Institute’ status

TEDI-London is pleased to announce that it has been granted permission to use its full name: The Engineering & Design Institute London. Welcoming its first cohort of students onto campus this year, the degree awarding higher education provider was founded by Arizona State University, King’s College London and UNSW Sydney to transform the way in which engineering is taught.

The word ‘institute’ is protected by Companies House and its use requires approval from the Secretary of State. It can be defined as ‘an organisation having a particular purpose, especially one that is involved with science, education, or a specific profession’.

The news comes as the latest achievement of this year, with TEDI-London already having successfully joined the register of English higher education providers (the Register) and been granted degree-awarding powers by the Office for Students. The milestone further demonstrates TEDI-London's ability to meet robust regulation standards within higher education and affirms its position as a quality provider of engineering education.

Winter is not the safest season. Slips & falls increase dramatically, especially when working outdoors, or simply walking to an office from the parking lot. When the cold and dark seem to conspire against health and safety, highlight your new safety communication to lower the risks. Discover safety solutions from Brady and make the winter safe!

Winterproof your safety signage

Discover safety identification solutions to support your Go for Zero programme throughout winter:

• clearly identify winter slip hazards and other risks on your premises, and easily guide employees, even in the dark, using ISO-compliant ultra-visible reflective signs with excellent outdoor reliability.
• easily apply reliable pipe markers to wet, rainy and cold outdoor pipe surfaces to make them compliant with any regulation or standard.
• quickly re-paint or create new, straight outdoor floor marking with PaintStripe stencils
• immediately highlight ice patches and other emerging winter hazards with outdoor safety cones and A-board floor stands

Snowball your safety messaging

While you can order any solution preprinted to your specifications, we can also offer full flexibility to get through winter. With the BBP37 Multicolour & Cut Sign & Label Printer at your premises, you can quickly update safety and facility identification to reduce risks.

• create reliable, industrial-grade outdoor safety signs, labels and pipe markers in any shape
• use in stand-alone mode, or add Brady Workstation apps to design an even wider range of signs, pipe markers and safety labels
• a few blank label supplies, requiring minimal storage space, can sustain your safety identification needs throughout winter

Make the winter safe with Brady >>

Brady Corporation

Tel: +44 (0) 1295 228 288

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.brady.co.uk

Stephen Molloy, aerospace, defence and industrials director for the quality management services provider, G&P, has been re-elected to the board of the Midlands Aerospace Alliance (MAA).

Established in 2003, the MAA is the voice of Midlands-based companies supplying the aerospace industry, helping to grow business revenues and create high-quality employment in the region, also forging links nationally and internationally.

Molloy, who has already served an initial two-year term on the board, is a chartered engineer with a wealth of international industry experience in airframe and power generation environments. Since 2017, Molloy has led G&P’s activities in the aerospace industry where the company is successfully transferring its recognised quality management expertise in high-value manufacturing environments into the aerospace sector and supply chain.

When the Environment Agency decided to embark on a project to evaluate a range of condition monitoring technologies for application on their flood risk management pumping stations, they approached Faraday Predictive as one of the more innovative of condition monitoring suppliers.

Within only a few days of commissioning the Faraday Predictive system on a number of different types of pump at different locations, the Faraday Predictive system showed some very strong indications of rubbing friction on one of the newly (re-)installed Archimedean Screw pumps at one site (figure 1 shows the screw prior to installation in the pump).  It was clear this problem had been present at the commissioning stage, but was completely absent on an identical machine at the same site – see figure 2 below.

Such a rapid identification and diagnosis of problems was unexpected, but the underlying cause, of assembly error, highlights one of the problems and paradoxes associated with conventional fixed-schedule Planned Maintenance (PM): every time you carry out maintenance work on a machine, you run the risk of introducing a fault that was not there before.  So perversely, the more you maintain a machine, the greater your risk of reducing its reliability.  The ideal objective is only to do maintenance work on a machine when you know that there is a problem developing, but before it results in machine failure.  This is the key concept of a Condition-Based Maintenance strategy (CBM).  

Author: Andrew Wreford -  Rittal's Product Manager for IT Systems

Oxford University's Gardens, Libraries and Museums division (GLAM) forms one of the greatest concentrations of university collections in the world. GLAM holds over 21 million objects, specimens and printed items, constituting one of the largest and most significant collections in the world.

Faced with the challenges of increased data demand, the Museum of Natural History – one of the museums within GLAM – wanted to upgrade its IT infrastructure to house core network switches, responsible for running the services. A major rewiring project was undertaken with the aim of significantly improving the data connectivity for computers, phones and next generation devices.

The wiring presented a challenge in itself as the historically significant listed building was not best designed to accommodate the space for conventional hardware. This required ingenious methods to work with the fabric of the building.

Peli Products (UK) Ltd celebrate their 30^th anniversary year in 2022.  The company has grown significantly during this time, moving to bigger premises twice and acquiring a specialist foam engineering division.

With a 20,000 sq ft purpose-built facility with offices, warehousing and logistics operations in Glossop, Derbyshire, Peli Products (UK) is the largest stockist of the Peli™ range in the UK.  The foam engineering division is based in Dorset and occupies a 31,000 sq ft facility for design and manufacturing.

The Peli™ case range, displayed on Stand J130 at Southern Manufacturing, is ideal for protecting instrumentation, components and tools.  Peli cases are watertight, dustproof and crushproof and produced in over 70 sizes to suit all requirements.

Significant investment has been made in protective packaging services which are specifically tailored to fit the equipment; precision engineered foam ensures protection from drops, knocks and vibration.  These bespoke foam inserts optimise the space and are ideal for sensitive, fragile equipment such as electronics and tool control.

Tool control inserts organise tools efficiently and using coloured foam, ensure missing items are easily identified, eliminating the risk of Foreign Object Damage (F.O.D.).  Durable custom foam ensures tools are secured in position and fully protected in transit. 

The team of Peli foam specialists will be on stand J130.  They have a wealth of knowledge in assisting customers to prevent transit damage and they will be available to discuss individual requirements.

www.peliproducts.co.uk

Having correctly lubricated production machinery ensures operational uptime, minimises maintenance and creates value through asset optimisation. With over
75 years of expertise in the manufacture of rolling bearings, Schaeffler understands why this is so important and has created a range of perfectly
matched lubrication products to ensure world-class machine reliability.

Lubrication is essential to the correct functioning of any equipment with moving parts. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, lubricant has been required
to make machinery efficient and stop it from breaking down. Yet all too often this subject isn’t given the attention it deserves and 80 per cent of premature rolling
bearing failures could be prevented through the use of proper lubrication.

Unite, the UK’s leading union, is calling on the government to introduce effective measures to ensure that workers who cannot work from home are protected following yesterday’s (8 December) announcement that it is implementing Plan B, as a result of the rise of the omnicron variant.

Although the government has instructed workers who can do so to work from home, that does not apply to the majority of Unite’s members who will still be expected to work normally, in sectors including: automotives, construction, food production, passenger transport, logistics and healthcare.

The government has provided little or no information to employers and workers in these sectors to ensure that the danger of at work transmission is minimised.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The government’s mixed messaging has left workers confused and worried. It is not enough just to say that if you have to go out to work you should carry on doing so. The government must implement measures to maximise safety within our workplaces in order to protect those people who have kept this country going.

“It is clear that additional measures are needed in all sectors of the economy in order to reduce the risk of infection.”

Unite is calling on all workplaces to conduct reviews of their risk assessments and initiate appropriate control measures such as ventilation, barriers, social distancing with appropriate signage and ensure hygiene facilities are adequate.

Unite believes that face coverings should be mandatory in crowded and communal workplace areas, with FFP2 type masks provided for certain types of work such as that undertaken by frontline health workers. If face coverings/mask wearing are deemed necessary for workers for extended periods they should receive extra breaks, in order to recover.

Unite also believes that in order to help prevent the rapid transmission of all variants of Covid-19, the government should reintroduce the free supply of lateral flow tests to employers in order to ensure that workers are regularly tested and outbreaks are minimised.

If the government is serious about wanting to ensure that anyone who is a close contact of someone who has contracted the omnicron variant self-isolates, then the level of sick pay must be significantly increased. Sick pay in the UK is among the lowest in Europe.

Unite is highly concerned that unless such additional measures are taken then rates of infection will increase and huge pressure will be placed on the NHS, whose staff are already exhausted from coping with the effects of the pandemic for over 18 months.

Unite national health and safety adviser Rob Miguel said: “There are a whole series of measures that could and should be taken to reduce the risk of infection in the workplace.

“The government has a morale duty to ensure that these are fully implemented. It is not good enough to cross your fingers and hope that employers do the right thing, clear leadership and guidance is required.”

Winn & Coales International Ltd are proud to announce that the Marketing & Sales Director of Winn & Coales (Denso) Ltd, Mr Andrew Stuart has been appointed to the IPLOCA Board of Directors.

IPLOCA, the International Pipe Line & Offshore Contractors Association has members in more than 40 countries, and represents around 250 of the key players in the onshore and offshore pipeline construction industry worldwide. IPLOCA is governed by a volunteer board of directors made up of 25 owners and senior executives of major pipeline contractors and service companies.

Mr Andrew Stuart joined the Winn & Coales International Group in 1990 at Denso South Africa (Pty) Ltd as a Production Manager in the factory. In 2015 he moved to the U.K. to take up the position of Export Sales Director for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. On the 1st of January 2021, Mr Stuart was appointed as the Marketing & Sales Director of Winn & Coales (Denso) Ltd.

Mr Stuart stated, “It is a privilege to be elected to the IPLOCA Board, I am looking forward to representing the Associate Members and contributing to this prestigious association over the next two years.”

For more than 90 years, the Winn & Coales International Group of companies has been creating bespoke and off-the-shelf solutions that provide enduring protection against corrosion and chemical attack to buried and exposed pipes, valves, fittings, steelwork, marine structures, tanks, and concrete bunded areas.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish Mr Stuart every success in his new appointment.