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Snickers Workwear leads the way in developing responsible Hi-Vis protective wear.

With an extensive range of Jackets, Trousers, Shorts, Toolvests, Shirts and Fleeces for men and women, there’s a host of garments in the Snickers Workwear range to satisfy the specific requirements of Class 1, 2 and 3 protection levels.

The requirements of EN standards for wearing high visibility are interwoven with the Snickers Workwear hallmarks of functionality and comfort in all the garments. What’s more, the lightweight Repreve® Polyester padding in the NEW AllroundWork Class 2 Hi-Vis padded jacket takes sustainablility in Hi-Vis workwear to a new level.

This world-leading brand of recycled performance fibre combines with the hardwearing polyamide fabric and CORDURA® reinforcements for enhanced durability that’s windproof, and warm, while stretch panels ensure optimal mobility.

Developed for craftsmen and women in the road, logistics, facilities and general construction sectors who must stay warm and visible in chilly conditions, like all Snickers Workwear Hi-Vis clothing, its durable, colour-fast protection that will last for wash after wash, retaining shape and comfort.

Getting more information on the Snickers Workwear range of ProtecWork and Snickers Workwear Hi-Vis protective wear is easy. You call the Helpline on 01484 854788; check out www.snickersworkwear.co.uk and download a digital catalogue; or you can email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dressing for the cold is like building a house – start with a good foundation.

The Snickers Workwear Baselayer clothing for professional tradesmen and women uses high-tech breathable fabrics for ventilation and body moisture transport for sustainable warmth and comfort.

The Base-, Mid- and Toplayer clothing combines to keep you working dry, warm and comfortable wherever you are on site. With sustainability at the forefront of Snickers Workwear’s clothing philosophy, garments are available in recycled polyester and merino wool as well as the 37.5® technology ventilating fabric to suit different types of work in a variety of cold and wet weather conditions.

The cutting-edge AllroundWork, FLEXIWork and LITEwork designs and fabrics will keep you warm and dry - so you won’t get cold, wet and shiver. All the garments are made from quick drying, fabrics that come with special ventilation features to control and regulate the heat from your body.

All in all, Snickers Workwear Baselayer clothing will give you the kind of warm, dry and fresh working comfort you wouldn’t have thought possible. That’s why Snickers Workwear is the brand of choice for working outside in the winter.

So, to make sure you get the right protection, visibility, flexibility, durability and ventilation, check out the Climate Control garments from Snickers Workwear that work together to suit your workday.  

For more information on Snickers Workwear’s sustainability philosophy and it’s Climate Control garments you can call the Helpline on 01484 854788; check out www.snickersworkwear.co.uk or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

New styles from Snickers Workwear deliver winter warmth and cooling comfort when you need it.

 Not only will you stay warm with Snickers Workwear’s 37.5® Technology clothing, you’ll look and feel cool too. With styles for both professional tradesmen and women, they excel at ventilation to keep you cool and moisture transportation to stop you getting cold. They work together to keep you working comfortably wherever you are on site.

 The 37.5® Technology fabric is a very quick-drying material that captures and releases moisture vapour – like your sweat - for superior coolness and dry working comfort. It’s integrated into selected Snickers Workwear base- mid- and top-layer garments to keep you working at your best whatever the weather.

After all, keeping a balanced work temperature is not just about staying cool and in great shape, it’s a matter of your wellbeing and job safety.

So, to make sure you get the right protection, visibility, flexibility, durability and ventilation, check out the Climate Control garments from Snickers Workwear that work together to suit your workday.  

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For more information on Snickers Workwear’s Climate Control garments visit www.snickersworkwear.co.uk alternatively, call the Snickers Workwear Helpline on 01484 854788.

Brammer Buck & Hickman, the UK’s leading supplier of industrial maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) products and services, has expanded its exclusive Mecaline brand to pneumatics, offering customers over 3000 product lines.

Mecaline is recognised in the UK for its mechanical and power transmission products, but across Europe this brand is also well known for its pneumatics product range.  Due to popular demand, the Mecaline pneumatics range has now been made available in the UK, providing customers with pneumatic products that combine quality and reliability, backed by Brammer Buck & Hickman’s extensive engineering expertise and added value services.

Designed in collaboration with world-leading manufacturers in their respective fields, to very strict specifications, the Mecaline pneumatic range includes hoses and fittings, couplings, tubing, cylinders, valves and a full range of accessories.  Every product has been designed and manufactured to meet exacting industry standards and deliver cost-effective long product life.

Mecaline pneumatics products are interchangeable with leading brands, ensuring that replacement or modification is swift and easy while reducing downtime associated with time spent trying to find the right parts for your application.

For more information on Mecaline pneumatics, please go to mecalineparts.com or visit your nearest Brammer Buck & Hickman branch. To buy online, go to uk.rubix.com/mecaline

ICSLink gives customers 24/7 access to live condition update and history of their assets, allowing them to oversee performance, energy consumption and remotely change set-points for better uptime, productivity, and efficiency.

 – ICS Cool Energy, an international market leader specializing in complete temperature control solutions for manufacturing process and facilities applications, today announced ICS Link, a new real-time, remote monitoring system and service for temperature control equipment. ICSLink combines data analytics, connectivity and expert support to maximise productivity, operational and energy efficiency of customers’ heating and cooling solutions.

The new ICS Link remote telemetry system continuously collects performance data of the temperature control equipment, allowing customers to have complete 24/7 visibility of their units, via web browser or dedicated mobile app and can remotely change set points if needed. ICSLink incorporates internal watchdogs for performance verification and reliability of temperature equipment like chillers, boilers, pumps, air handling units and fan coils. The system is compatible with new and legacy equipment, rented or owned and works with customer’s building management systems.

Stand H120

Altus Group, a leading distributor of capital equipment for electronics assembly, will be exhibiting at the Southern Manufacturing and Electronics exhibition in Farnborough from 8-10 February 2022 where they will demonstrate some of the latest technical trends on the market including 3D AOI and laser marking equipment.

Altus will present Koh Young’s innovative Alpha HS+ 3D AOI System at the exhibition. With 3D replacing 2D systems almost exclusively in the coming years, Koh Young have positioned themselves as leaders in this innovative technology.

“Altus will demonstrate the benefits of the Alpha HS+ 3D AOI,” said Joe Booth, Chief Executive Officer at Altus. “Visitors can see first-hand how the system has the ability to inspect and provide quantitative measurement of components and extended inspection coverage for high height inspection helping to deliver the most accurate AOI inspection on the market.

Implementing condition monitoring can reduce the frequency and cost of equipment maintenance. Specifically, vibration analysis can provide valuable insight into machine condition, flagging up problems before extensive damage occurs. Chris Johnson, managing director of ball bearing supplier SMB Bearings, explains the steps machine builders should take to reduce the likelihood of bearings being the root cause.

With large numbers of rolling elements in industrial machines, it can be tricky to decipher exactly what is going on inside a unit. Condition monitors often use accelerometers to measure vibration. With this device, it is possible to differentiate between vibrations by examining the individual frequencies present in the overarching vibration signal. These frequencies can then be used to match to individual parts or certain malfunctions.

This analysis can warn of faults well before failure. In the case of bearings, it is possible to detect excessive rolling element wear or damage due to poor fitting techniques, highlighting the need for bearing replacement. The alternative would be to allow the bearing to deteriorate further, which could potentially cause other components to fail.

Howden and Chart Industries (NYSE: GTLS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as they move forward in collaboration for advanced hydrogen solutions, incorporating Howden gas compression systems into Chart hydrogen offerings.

Howden is a leading global provider of mission critical air and gas handling products, technologies and services across a diverse range of industries, while Chart is a leading global manufacturer of highly engineered equipment, servicing multiple applications in the clean energy and industrial gas markets.

This relationship will result in more cost-effective standardised solutions within an integrated and optimised service offering. This will provide customers with tailored global aftermarket support and will leverage both companies’ manufacturing capabilities to be close to the regional hydrogen projects that are anticipated to move quickly to commercialization this decade.

Ross Shuster, CEO of Howden comments: “We are confident that this collaboration with Chart will bring significant benefits to customers, while also more broadly benefitting the rapidly developing renewable hydrogen industry.  We view this collaboration as one means to bring cost-effective, standardized solutions to the market in order to help reduce the time required to develop new projects and to lower costs associated with renewable hydrogen. This cooperation with Chart is a natural one given our common focus on customers, technology and innovation, and our passion for enabling the global clean energy transition.”

Commenting on the partnership, Jill Evanko, CEO of Chart Industries stated, “We are pleased to partner with Howden, a market leader in numerous areas, including gas compression, and a partner that we have worked with for many years.  The combination of our offerings are highly complementary which reduces lead-time and unnecessary costs for our customers as hydrogen projects require speed to market and cost competitiveness.”

Cheltenham, UK – No matter how durable a steam trap may be, like any mechanical device, it will eventually need repairing and/or replacement. And the longer a trap is in service, the more opportunity it has to wear, which will lower the trap’s performance and can eventually impede operation.

Determining when a trap will fail is extremely difficult because a trap’s lifecycle can be influenced by a number of factors, including steam trap type, application, pressure, condensate load, piping configuration, and steam/condensate quality.

To help prevent premature trap failure and identify failures in a timely manner, every plant using steam should establish a steam trap management programme to help optimise the steam system and minimise costs.

Caption: The Basic Mechanism of Steam Traps

A properly operating steam trap will discharge condensate and incondensable gases while preventing unnecessary steam loss.

Unlike manual valves, steam traps regulate flow automatically and help prevent steam from leaking out of the system, while allowing condensate to flow through and be discharged.

Inspecting traps for failure does not only involve checking for condensate blockage or large steam leaks, but it is also important to check for smaller leaks and to confirm that the correct steam trap is installed properly. This includes checking trap type, pressure and temperature ratings, discharge capacity and whether the trap has been installed according to the manufacturer’s installation instructions.

Why Monitor Steam Trap Failure?

Steam trap failure occurs when a steam trap either leaks live steam or blocks condensate discharge.

Caption: Steam Trap Failure

Steam traps fail by either leaking out steam (left) or blocking condensate discharge either partially or completely (right).

Between the two types of failure, blockage can have the greatest impact on safety, reliability and production. When not discharged rapidly from a steam distribution system, condensate can back-up into steam headers resulting in wet steam and/or water hammer.

In process heating applications, a back-up of condensate can cause the heating temperature to drop. This in turn may increase defects and affect product quality. Blocked traps often have a direct impact on production, which often makes them easier to identify than leaking traps.

Conversely, leaking traps do not affect heating efficiency, but rather energy efficiency. Leaking traps result in significant amounts of wasted energy and money, but often remain unnoticed or forgotten because they do not directly affect product heating.

Caption: Wasted Energy = Wasted Money

Steam leakage can represent a significant waste of fuel, water, and treatment costs, and it can also greatly increase a plant's carbon footprint.

Testing Traps

To effectively check whether steam traps are operating properly or not, an inspection needs to be performed while the steam system is running and steam traps are in operation.

Since high pressure and high temperature steam is involved, the working parts of a trap cannot be inspected while a process is in operation. Surveyors therefore inspect other factors, such as:

• Trap appearance and orientation
• Trap discharge
• Temperature
• Pressure
• Vibrations (sound), etc.

From Steam Trap Management to Condensate Discharge Location Management

The true aim of a steam trap management programme is to ensure that steam processes run smoothly and efficiently in order to maintain high-quality processes and production and help conserve energy.

To achieve the best results, these programmes should cover more than just the steam trap. Surveyors should inspect the entire condensate discharge location (CDL), making sure to examine the drainage system around the trap, including all piping and valves associated with it. It is important to inspect the entire CDL to ensure that no problem areas are overlooked.

Recording and analysing data on the performance of steam traps and CDLs is also extremely important. For example, imagine that steam trap failure rate was lowered to 10% after establishing a steam trap management programme. Methods of lowering this rate further will vary depending on the specific characteristics of the failures, such as traps in the same locations failing repeatedly, or traps becoming more likely to fail after they reach a certain age. Only by analysing data to this level of detail can a plant develop an effective strategy for optimising their steam traps and CDLs.

To summarise, establishing a steam trap management programme is important in all plants using steam. It can help to conserve energy and maintain high efficiency throughout the steam system, but inspections should be regular and cover the entire condensate location to enable the maximum return possible.

For further information, call TLV Euro Engineering on +44 (0)1242 227223, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.tlv.co.uk.

McMenon Engineering Services Limited is celebrating after picking up two leading industry awards.

The Workington-based company was victorious in two categories of the Energy Industries Council Awards.

The EIC awards celebrate the best supply chain companies in the energy sector and everyone at McMenon is delighted to be recognised in this way.

McMenon, which has built up a world-renowned reputation for manufacturing quality specialist flow and temperature measurement products, won in both the Export and Resilience categories.

The export shortlist looks at businesses who have developed new business growth by focusing on exporting and internationalisation in new countries and regions.

And the resilience category rewards companies who have had the capacity to adapt and recover quickly from challenging market pressures and events.

“It was an honour to even be shortlisted for these awards and to go on and win is just fantastic,” said McMenon CEO Anand Puthran.

“It showcases all the hard work of every member of the team at McMenon and we are very proud of what we have achieved under difficult circumstances.

“It is appropriate that we should honour the resilience that we have had to show to overcome the challenges, not only of a global pandemic, but also of the changes made by Brexit to exporting goods.

“The fact that our business has continued to grow under these uncertain times is testament to the capabilities and innovation within the team at McMenon.”

The winners were announced at a virtual awards event on Thursday, December 2.

For further information visit www.mcmenon.com