News
Corporate
November 2014
15
Dr Jeremy Hodge, chief executive of
the British Approvals Service for Cables
(BASEC), anticipates a strong demand for
the soon-to-open cable fire testing facility,
as the cable industry moves to implement
the Construction Products Regulation 2011
(CPR).
The
test
laboratories
at
BASEC’s
headquarters in Milton Keynes, UK, are into
the commissioning phase and will go fully
live by the end of this year.
Dr
Hodge
says
the
three
new
re-configurable fire test labs and a ladder
rack rig, joining BASEC’s existing smoke
and halogen testing facilities, represent a
considerable investment for the approvals
and testing body and further expand the
capability of the largest dedicated testing
facility in Europe.
He says BASEC expects there will be
increased demand from its current clients
for the fire testing of cables in accordance
with the CPR and the test labs will also
be open to other cable manufacturers
and traders seeking to conform to the
regulations as they become applicable to
cables.
“In anticipation of this, BASEC has made
a substantial investment in laboratories,
equipment and a dedicated team of staff
and we have expanded the range of our
services to meet the demands of the
industry,”said Dr Hodge.
“At Milton Keynes we have combined the
expertise and experience of our staff with
state-of-the-art equipment within first-class
facilities to serve our clients from around
the world who hold BASEC approvals.
“And with the implementation of the CPR
for cables we also expect there will now
be a demand from other manufacturers
who do not have access to the kind of
facilities we can offer, such as production/
certification and development testing
of their products. We will also be able to
turn test samples around quickly and
competitively.”
BASEC laboratories can carry out a number
of cable fire tests: BS EN 50200; BS EN
50200 Annex E; BS 8434-2; BS 6387 CWZ;
and others based on IEC standards, and
will shortly also encompass a BS EN 50399
3.5-metre-tall ladder rack rig for vertical
fire tests on cables. The Milton Keynes
headquarters also has a 3m
3
smoke
chamber for smoke emission tests (EN
61034-2).
BASEC – UK Website
:
New BASEC lab facilities to meet demand for CPR
fire tests
Mittal Corp Limited (MCL), an ISO
9001 & ISO 14000 certified company
that manufactures stainless steel flats
(200 series) in India, has set up a new
technology plant at Pithampur to
manufacture stainless steel, alloy steel
and special steel rods in coils, rounds,
stainless steel reinforcement bars and QTR
rebars.
The entire plant and machinery has come
from Danieli Morgardshammar, Italy, a
manufacturer of rolling mill and steel
plant equipment.
Key features include:
•
Reheating furnace with moving
hearth for uniform heating and low
scale formation, with input size of 160
x 160mm billet
•
Descaler before roughing stands to
remove scale formed during reheating
•
Intermediate
rolling
on
horizontal-vertical roll configuration
to give better control during rolling
due to no-twist arrangement
•
Delta-type ten-stand wire rod block
with post-rolling arrangement of
forced cooling, retarded cooling
and water quenching to achieve
grain size/structure and mechanical
properties for different grades
• Level II automation to ensure
dimensional tolerances better than
international designated standards
in accordance with requirement of
customers
A new steel melt shop is being set up
to produce niche grades for specialised
applications like nuclear, aerospace, air
craft industry and defence hardware.
Mittal Corp Ltd – India
Website
:
New technology plant for Mittal
▲
▲
A new technology plant for Mittal Corp at Pithampur, India
