ROUND-UP
COLLABORATION & SUPPLY
Ensuring that companies operating
across the energy production arena have
access to tooling and equipment for
infrastructure assembly and maintenance
projects is the objective of an extended
agreement between Atlas Copco and
its bolting distributor, Torque Solutions.
She eld-based Torque Solutions has
been appointed by Atlas Copco Tools
& Industrial Assembly Solutions to
provide a full spectrum rental service,
which includes the hire, maintenance,
refurbishment and calibration of its
complete portfolio of hydraulic torque
and bolt tensioning products. This
expanded partnership facilitates access
to all areas of Atlas Copco’s expertise in
the UK, including design, manufacture
and test, all under one roof.
www.is.gd/opehoy
AMTE Power (pictured, top, facing page)
and Britishvolt have announced plans to
investigate collaborating to build a UK full
cycle battery cell GigaPlant, servicing the
energy storage and automotive markets.
Both parties have signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) focused on each
other’s ambitions to create and expand
an onshore manufacturing supply chain.
More info: www.is.gd/kedotu
BUMAX screws for ELT
Stainless steel fasteners manufacturer BUMAX has
been chosen to supply thousands of fasteners for the
European Southern Observatory’s ELT (extremely
large telescope) presently under construction.
The rm has received an order for more than
11,000 fasteners (model BUMAX 109) for the
construction of the ESO ELT. These hexagonal bolts
are A4 grade stainless steel.
The ELT (pictured) is a re ector telescope that will collect light from the universe
using a curved mirror that is 39 metres across. Such a giant mirror is much too large
to be made from a single piece of glass, so instead it will consist of 798 individual
hexagonal segments, each measuring 1.4 metres across and driven by electrical
motors for ne tuning.
It is said that the ELT will be the world’s largest telescope when it goes operational
in the dry Atacama desert in northern Chile in 2024.
They say that the successful outcome of
the collaboration would enable scalable
production of a diverse product portfolio
of lithium ion batteries to support the
country’s Road to Zero targets and
transition to electri cation.
www.is.gd/asamik
DHL Supply Chain has launched a
new ‘plug & play’ robotics platform in
collaboration with Microsoft, and arti cial
intelligence (AI) driven digital ful lment
provider Blue Yonder. The robotics
platform is said to signi cantly reduce
integration time and programming e orts
to implement new automation devices
into warehouse facilities, while also
giving DHL customers more exibility
in selecting suitable robotics systems
according to individual business needs.
The solution is based on Microsoft Azure
IoT and cloud platform services.
www.is.gd/rojuwo
Engineers Without Borders UK, part of
an international movement putting global
responsibility at the heart of engineering,
has extended its 15 year partnership with
mining conglomerate the Anglo American
Foundation for a further three years.
Commenting on the £700,000, threeyear
donation, Katie Creswell-Maynard,
CEO of Engineers Without Borders UK,
said: “It’s an amazing partnership that
we have with Anglo American and its
foundation. They helped us considerably
in our formative years and now their
continued and generous funding will
enable us to deliver our core work and to
pursue our ambitions.”
www.is.gd/omeyop
Letter to the editor
Thank you for an excellent article in the Summer 2020 issue of Operations Engineer;
www.is.gd/uquboq on the Bunce eld Oil Terminal re in 2005, which I remember very
well. It was the biggest UK re in peacetime and the Hertfordshire Fire Services are to be
highly commended for having dealt with this potentially fatal re. I have now retained it in
my HSW le for the future.
In reply, may I say that the CEO of a £135 million company once said to me personally
that ‘health and safety was a load of b******s’. Moreover this CEO’s negative perception
of safety at an executive level was then transmitted vertically down through the
management pyramid. The e ect of this is that safety was seen by him and others as an
impediment to generating pro t... and I suspect many other companies also.
So, while I full agree with the authors’ conclusions, if the CEO does not take safety
seriously, then no-one else will. This also may have been a factor in the years before
Bunce eld in 2005. Proactively managing safety is everybody’s responsibility, not
just mine and yours.
Mike Ponsonby, appointed person
8 www.operationsengineer.org.uk Autumn 2020
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