TPT January 2010

I ndustry N ews

Modular Engineering wins major industry award

Modular Engineering team has achieved since being established just over a year ago. The approach has transformed the ability of the building services industry to deliver high quality, cost-effective solutions – on time, every time. “Once clients see for themselves the benefits of the approach, they are won over. It has enormous potential for the future.” The award was one of the most hard- fought categories in the Offsite Construction Awards, with Modular Engineering one of ten finalists. Wolseley UK Email: judy.lawson@wolseley.co.uk Website: www.wolseley.co.uk

PIPE Center’s Modular Engineering has won a major national award for innovation in construction. It received the award for Best Product or System in the Offsite Construction Awards 2009, held alongside Interbuild at the NEC. The award recognised the ability of Pipe Center’s approach to reduce costs, save waste, protect the environment, cut accidents and deliver an assured level of quality on time and to budget. Bob Hughes, general manager of Modular Engineering, said: “We are obviously delighted to win the award. It is recognition of the huge benefits offered by off-site modular engineering for multi- service pipework for buildings.” He added: “Given the ever tighter time and cost pressures in the construction industry, I have no doubt that use of the modular engineering approach will increase in the future.” In the conventional approach, often complex building services pipework and electrical systems required for a building – including air conditioning, M&E services, refrigeration, water and fire – are installed individually on-site. This requires the involvement of several different trades, working in building site conditions, with the inevitable pressures and limitations this entails. The new approach, developed by Bob Hughes and colleagues at Pipe Center, overcomes the need for such difficult and inefficient on-site working. It is based on the off-site assembly of multi-service pipe modules, containing all the piped and electrical building services required – even for the most complex buildings, such as major hospitals. Multi-service modules are assembled in factory-controlled conditions to strict

quality standards, before being transported to site, located in position, and joined together and commissioned. The result is a reliable, fully-tested system that works. “The savings in cost, time, manpower and materials are enormous. It also has huge benefits for the environment – as materials and components are precisely specified, resulting in dramatically reduced wastage,” he says. “It also means a big reduction in vehicle miles travelled, as the modules are delivered to site in a single drop as complete units, rather than as hundreds or even thousands of individual components, on multiple vehicle deliveries.” Scott Craig, sales and marketing director, said: “We are proud of what the

Bob Hughes, general manager of Pipe Center Modular Engineering, receives the award for Best Product or System from Jackie Maginnis, chief executive of the Modular and Portable Building Association. They are joined by Kevin Hartshorne, regional trading director, Central and West, at the Pipe and Climate Center (second left) and Scott Craig (far right), marketing director of Pipe Center

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J anuary 2010

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