News

A SEMI-AUTONOMOUS robot currently being manufactured to inspect pressure vessels will remove the risk to humans while also saving industries millions of pounds each year.

As a health and safety requirement, routine internal pressure vessel inspections must be carried out at plants across the world but the process of closing down production, depressurising the vessel and transporting any fluids or liquids is extremely costly.

In addition, these inspections in hazardous environments are currently carried out by humans and there is a high level of risk involved.

To combat these problems, a remotely controlled robot, Chimera, has been developed by a collaboration of companies across the UK for use across all industries, including oil and gas, nuclear and water.

Chimera is a machine which can withstand hazardous environments and is built in two components to allow a great deal of flexibility so it can climb internal vessel walls, and is attached to a tether to enable the machine to be controlled remotely by an operator from a safe distance.

The robot will have a camera attached to relay live images back to the operator and an ultrasonic phased array inspection system and LIDAR scanner will also be included to create a 3D map of the internal structure to paint an accurate picture of the state of the vessel and identify damage.

A slender ‘snake’ arm can also be attached to carry out any minor repairs needed in such a confined space.

Cumbrian engineering firm Forth has developed the robotic platform of the Chimera project and has successfully trialled the machine to prove that the concept model accurately carries out its functions.

Joshua Oakes, a Project Engineer at Forth, said: “Maintenance inspections need to be carried out routinely on pressure vessels the world over and the process of having to stop production and draining or transporting any fluid or gas is a long, and very expensive, one. On average, it can cost £40,000 per day to shut production down, and these inspections can go on for days.

“It also requires people to conduct the inspections and it can be hard getting in and out of the confined spaces, and very dangerous due to the substances which have previously been stored in the vessels.

“Chimera removes the human element from hazardous environments, and lets the work get carried out from a safe, remote distance.

“The job can also be completed in hours rather than days, with production not having to be stopped at all.”

The Chimera innovation will come equipped with four heavy duty magnets each with a pull of 116kg worth of weight so it can climb interior walls and ceilings.

The machine features a four-track drive and the operator will be able to steer each track individually to ensure it can be easily controlled.

The purpose of it being constructed in two separate parts is twofold: to allow for a greater deal of flexibility and to enable the machine to be dragged back should power be lost in the machine’s motors.

To reduce the risks of losing power, a water cooling system has been included on the machine to keep the electrics cool during use.

The team at Forth has proven the concept of Chimera with partners, and has successfully trialled a working model.

They are now looking to gain financial backers to progress the process of the innovation to the next stage, allowing the machine to be modified and adapted into a commercial piece of equipment.

The Innovate UK-backed programme has also been supported by The Welding Institute, Headlight AI, Sound Mathematics, the University of Nottingham, Rolls Royce, Metallisation and Race.

To contact Forth visit www.forth.uk.com

THE LARGEST INDEPENDENT INTERDEALER BROKER IN THE WORLD WINS THE PRESTIGIOUS ENERGY RISK AWARD AS IT CELEBRATES ITS FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY

LONDON and HOUSTON and NEW YORK, July 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading independent interdealer broker OTC Global Holdings (OTCGH) continues to strengthen its worldwide leadership position as it is recognized with Energy Risk's 2022 Broker of the Year award. Over the past 15 years, OTC Global Holdings has transformed into a highly technological brokerage firm focused 100% on global commodity markets, and being named Broker of the Year in 2011, 2016, 2017, 2019, and now 2022. "Since 2007, we've worked hard to compile the best talent in the world and an operation powered by EOXLive, our proprietary technology. Today, one third of worldwide natural gas options, one third of all NAPTHA and one third of global gas-oil futures moves between our shops," said Javier Loya, Chairman and Co-CEO of OTC Global Holdings.

OTCGH has built an unparalleled business model, focusing on three key operational pillars: (1) high quality execution; (2) unrivaled customer service and; (3) innovative technology with EOXLive. Joe Kelly, President and Co-CEO of OTC Global Holdings explained, "We want to provide solutions for all of our clients' trading needs. Having the premiere liquidity pools around the globe and the products, means we have the top experts in that space. In times like these, you can't just look at a screen, you need to have that expertise, you need to have all the information together. So, taking research, analytics, an expert to talk to, market data, unparalleled trade execution, and tying that together with not only a physical product but at the same time giving you the freight along with it, the ship logistics to move it, and your financial hedge, that itself makes it incredibly efficient and very valuable for the trader."

OTCGH's portfolio includes nearly 20 of the industry's most powerful and agile independent brokerages across the world. The company serves more than 500 institutional clients, including over 70 members of the Global Fortune 500, and transacts in hundreds of different commodity delivery points in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. According to Joe Kelly, "commodity markets will continue to experience a radical transformation throughout the next decade due to the global linking of energy markets." "As we move forward into a new era, the time is now to continue to innovate, incorporate new products around renewable energy, and consolidate our leadership position in every commodity market around the world.  The time is now to accelerate our journey with technological superiority and high-quality broker execution," he added.

Energy Risk's Broker of the Year award is the most prestigious recognition in the industry, recognizing innovation in trading and risk management, demonstrated prudent energy risk management and expertise and thought leadership in energy derivatives and other risk management tools. "This year's award is very special. It comes on our fifteenth anniversary and it is a testament to our expertise, our leadership and our teamwork. To be recognized as Broker of the Year five times, it takes a team that wants to roll up their sleeves and know that their working for each other and, ultimately, for our clients," concluded Javier Loya.

Visit otcgh.com to learn more or watch a short video here: https://vimeo.com/718433168

For optimal safety during machine maintenance, a large renewable energy producer implemented a worldwide standard approach to Lockout/Tagout. This life-saving procedure enables maintenance specialists to isolate machines from their energy supply while interventions are ongoing.

Challenge: Standard Lockout/Tagout procedures worldwide

The safety of its employees is a high priority at one of the world’s largest renewable energy producers. As a result, company sites in various countries started testing Lockout/Tagout at a site level to neutralise electrical circuits during maintenance interventions.

Lockout/Tagout requires written procedures that enable employees to fully neutralise machines from their energy supply using a blocking mechanism and padlocks. This procedure prevents premature activation of machinery, and any injuries caused by various forms of energy and moving machine parts.

The renewable energy company now wanted to globally standardise its approach to Lockout/Tagout, so that every site in every country could optimally benefit from company best practices, and achieve the highest levels of maintenance safety.

Solutions: 2 practical solution kits to cover worldwide needs

Brady proposed sets of relevant and dedicated Lockout/Tagout tools based on customer needs. Lockout/Tagout specialists

demonstrated and tested all proposed tools at a pilot site, to enable our customer to make a fully informed final selection.

Brady offers several solutions that can block circuit breakers in the off-position while maintenance is ongoing. They prevent shocks and burns caused by re-energising circuits prematurely. They can be locked in place with Brady’s Lockout/Tagout padlocks, including the SafeKey padlock, available in non-conducting nylon versions, complete with colour-coded padlock bodies and matching keys.

To meet customer requirements, 2 practical, standard maintenance safety kits were created containing the selected Lockout/Tagout tools. These kits were made available to customer sites anywhere in the world, to enable streamlined and safer machine interventions.

Results: Highly manageable maintenance safety

The large renewable energy producer’s maintenance specialists now use the same Lockout/Tagout tools in a standardised

approach to maintenance safety. This enables increased safety during maintenance anywhere in the world, fast sharing of best

practices, and a very efficient and centralised management of maintenance safety procedures.

Find out more about Brady’s Lockout/Tagout complete solutions >>

Brady Corporation

Link:

https://www.brady.co.uk/lockout-tagout?sfdc=7014V000002dGpP&utm_source=msl&utm_medium=web-advertorial&utm_campaign=sfid-loto&utm_content=loto-case-standardised&camp=display-uk-awareness-msl-sfidlotocase_wadv#Implementation

Manchester-based compliance consultancy, OHS, has appointed Nick Bye as Group Commercial Director as it diversifies its business to become the UK’s only comprehensive solution for compliance and protection services in occupied and unoccupied property.

OHS has long been in the business of environmental compliance services in occupied, managed spaces, covering risk assessment of asbestos, water and fire, but with the appointment of Nick it will now provide new services to manage vacant property. It will become one of the few providers that offer services that can cover the full property lifecycle, from being vacant to occupied again.

Nick has 10 years' experience in the property services sector, formally working for VPS Group. His experience in vacant property services will see him sell OHS’s wraparound solution of ensuring protected occupied and unoccupied properties to the property management, facilities management, and social housing sectors.

Commenting on his appointment, OHS Group Commercial Director, Nick Bye said: “Part of my role will be to take the business forward with new service lines, such as property maintenance and clearance work, while also developing OHS’s current service lines.

"I have a number of years’ experience of knowing what clients do and do not want from a property support service company, so I will to be able to grow the business rapidly as it offers a completely holistic service.”

OHS Managing Director, Andy Fowler follows: “The business has a lot of heritage and lots of exciting expansion plans, but we also needed someone to spearhead the strategy to deliver more services. This holistic approach will help us stand out in a crowded market space that sometimes can fall victim to poor service delivery and a lack of understanding of true customer needs.

“When we met Nick, the realisation that if we diversified into unoccupied property management –there are so many more following the pandemic- we could grow our portfolio of services and also offer a unique proposition to current customers and potential customers. Nick has fantastic contacts within various sectors, including major insurance companies who have strict requirements on making sure properties are protected and compliant. In addition, as a new board director, he will bring a new dynamic to the management team and we’re sure he’ll be a real asset to OHS.”

A fast-growing Teesside engineering and management services consultancy in the energy industry has revealed plans to target UK regions as part of an ambitious national expansion plan.

Stockton-on-Tees-based Encora Energy already has a strong presence in the north east of England, having had a base on Teesside since 2015. In the last few years, the company has expanded its geographical reach, working on projects in East Anglia and the south of England.

Now Encora has made its first senior appointment in the Midlands to bolster its presence in this region, hiring Michael Coe, a project engineer. In his new role, Michael will be responsible for managing projects on Midlands-based sites that are set to begin construction soon.

A mechanical engineering graduate, Michael previously held the position of international business development manager for environmental consultancy Fosse Liquitrol. He is also working alongside Durham University and Northern Power Grid on a research project to develop a heat exchanger for transformers.

His appointment marks the next phase of Encora’s growth strategy as it looks to expand into new UK markets. The company is eyeing up several regions, including Scotland and the north west and east of England.

Andrew Normand, new business manager and UptimeAI partnership lead at Encora Energy, said: “We’re already very well-known in the north east of England but now we’re looking at markets further afield. Michael’s appointment will allow us to get a greater foothold in the Midlands – an important UK region for us – and win more work there.

Michael Coe said: “I’m delighted to be joining a company that has ambition which matches my own. Encora is a forward-thinking consultancy that’s helping clients to exploit opportunities arising from the rapidly changing needs of the energy market.   The

Encora provides project development, engineering, consultancy and operations management services to customers, helping them deal with the practicalities of developing, installing, operating and maintaining new energy systems such as renewable and battery storage systems, combined heat and power (CHP) plants, fuel cells, gas engines and gas turbines. The company also acts as UK and European agents for UptimeAI, providing cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for the process industries.

For more information, visit https://www.encora.energy/ or Encora’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/encora-energy-limited/

TÜV SÜD UK has appointed Darren Hugheston-Roberts as the new Head of its Machinery Safety division.

Darren joins TÜV SÜD from Bureau Veritas, where he was Service Lead of Engineering Technical Services and Technical Manager for its machinery & UKCA Approved Body. Previously, he served for 25 years in the British Army, within the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). Most recently he served as the senior engineer within a battle group, providing technical advice to the commander to optimise equipment use and ensure its availability. He also oversaw the work of over 40 multi-skilled engineers and engineering managers, and was responsible for the inspection, maintenance and repair of vehicles, plant, weapons and lifting equipment.

Paul Taylor, Business Development Director for Industrial Services at TÜV SÜD, said: “Darren brings a unique set of skills to TÜV SÜD, with 30 years of extensive engineering and people management experience in a high-pressure environment, backed up by his commercial work in technical safety and machinery conformity. His appointment will be a real asset to our growing business - further strengthening our team’s capabilities and our ability to deliver excellent customer service.”

Darren Hugheston-Roberts said: “I am really excited by this new opportunity to work as part of a team that is the UK market leader in machinery safety. TÜV SÜD is at the forefront of industrial safety developments and its certification mark has become a globally renowned symbol for safety, security and trust. Our dedicated and experienced team are superb, and I am really looking forward to working with them to build on that success and develop the business.”

Why are so many isolating switching amplifiers and pneumatic valve terminals still installed in large control cabinets to send intrinsically safe signals and pneumatic drives from Ex zoned areas?

There are numerous concepts for planning of potentially explosive systems, such as the optimization of the zoning, the reduction in size of zoned areas or the wish to run everything out of hazardous areas into a central cabinet via cable routes.

The crux of the issue is that the calculation of the cabling is often not within the scope of the plant or- machine builder. Logically speaking, the effort and costs arise elsewhere, but they do not vanish into thin air. An innovative solution while considering the potential trade-offs must be carefully considered.

It is clear that many plants, especially in the chemical industry, have long been equipped with Ex Remote IO systems. Large and modular Remote IO cabinets are widely established in this industry. In this article I would like to draw the attention of plant and machine builders to a new concept.

What is new about it and what are the benefits?

The new concept for zoned areas is: Place small Remote IO valve terminals distributed within a system instead of building central or large decentralized solutions. The aim is to collect the intrinsically safe signals on-site and to supply the pneumatic drives decentrally via short pneumatic lines. From there, communication takes place directly via PROFINET to the controller.

Newly developed technologies from non-hazardous areas are usually upgraded and certified for zoned areas with a time delay. In the case of products for Zone 2/22, this may happen very quickly. However, for devices for Zone 1/21, which also supply sensors from Zone 0/20, new and innovative products can usually only be implemented with considerable effort by the manufacturer.

Through the successful partnership between BEx Solution, FESTO and Exepd, the 3 in 1 solution was created, which as a result provides an innovative, tried-and-tested and certified compact Remote IO valve terminal for potentially explosive areas in zone 1/21.

What added value results from this solution? You gain space, time and money! The small boxes combine bus nodes, isolating switching amplifiers, intrinsically safe IO channels and the valve terminal, guaranteeing short distances to the sensors and the pneumatic actuators. Connect compressed air, power supply and PROFINET, quickly and easily!

Now many will say yes, but what about the software effort? Those who already have experience know that it does work but costs a lot of time and money. We are back on the big topic of resources. When developing the new concept, particular care was taken to ensure that the Remote IO module itself does not have to be configured. Communication and I/O settings take place via 64 I/O bytes.

Areas of application: Painting plants, pharmaceutical and chemical industry, bulk goods plants, mixing / grinding plants, industrial heating / cooling systems, sewage plants, and much more.

Functions: The connection is possible via PROFINET or Modbus TCP / IP. Up to 16 pcs 3/2-way valves or up to 8 pcs 5/2-way valves can be configured, or combinations thereof. 16 Namur inputs are available for the position indicators. The module is also equipped with analogue 4 to 20mA Ex i signals

One final point: Many customers like the compact concept very much, but they have decided on existing solutions based on long-term specifications by their end customers or company-specific specifications. That is certainly the reality, especially in explosion-prone systems, where technology should last for several decades. With existing and well performing systems, you have to think twice about a change. But when it comes to modernising old systems or planning new systems, we recommend that you take a closer look at this solution which will enable more flexibility in the future.

“Not yet convinced , simply request a test device”

More information at: https://exloc.co.uk/bex-remote-io-valve-terminal/

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

Contribution by Karl Vogel CMO - BEx-Solution GmbH & Andrew Tither Exloc Instruments UK Ltd

Enerpac announces two new series of workshop presses—the XLP-Series H-Frame Workshop Presses and VLP-Series Benchtop Presses. Whether for differential assembly in the automotive industry, gear components assembly in the aerospace industry, or bearing maintenance in the mining industry, the new Enerpac VLP and XLP presses offer superior performance.

New XLP-Series Workshop Presses

Available in 25-, 50-, and 75-ton models, the XLP-Series Workshop Presses feature adjustable side-to-side cylinder movement, a locking winch for easy height adjustment of the press bed, and high-performance manual, pneumatic or electric pump options with remote valve operation. The 25-ton press has a simple, welded design and the 50- and 75-ton presses have an open frame and bolted design. The 50-and 75-ton models come standard as unassembled kits, and include complete press frame, winch, cylinder, pump with gauge, couplers and hose.

New VLP-Series Benchtop Presses

Enerpac VLP-Series Benchtop Presses work with manual or air pumps. They feature a welded frame and are available in 10-ton models.

To learn more about the Enerpac VLP and XLP Presses, visit www.enerpac.com.

Hart Door Systems has secured its largest order for its Speedor Storm door, the high-performance exterior roller door designed for frequent use in high traffic situations and constructed to withstand harsh environments including 90mph for wind class 5.

Brian Woodcock, Hart’s regional sales manager for the Midlands and South West, says the  rapid roll door, with its robustness, low maintenance and exceptional wind resistance was required for a factory in an exposed part of Lincolnshire.

“With half a dozen major storms so far this year there is a noticeable increase in enquiries for a high speed door which can withstand exceptional weather,” says Mr Woodcock.

The order for 15 ‘Storms’ is for a  pre-World War 1 building which is undergoing phased redevelopment to create new space and streamline production. The high-speed Storms will help to reduce energy consumption, keep the building warmer and more efficient.

Mr Woodcock adds: “While its high-speed opening and closing action improve efficiency, the energy-saving potential of this rapid roll door is high, controlling internal temperatures as well as reducing escaping dirt, odours and noise.”

www.hartdoors.com  t: 0191 214 0404  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.