Case Studies

The leisure sector is booming in Great Britain and health and leisure clubs are jostling to provide the best possible exercise environments for their clients in order to remain competitive. This means very high standards of heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

A successful project completed by Sandford includes the Mayfair branch of one of the country’s most sophisticated health clubs. The club operates in a building which was completely gutted and refurbished to become a custom built club. Air conditioning was installed in all areas together with a refrigeration plant for the entire building.

Sandford was asked to provide a control system capable of regulating temperatures separately in each part of the building. Every section, from gymnasium to aerobics rooms, weights room, health spa and pool area required very different temperature control. We designed a system which would allow separate automatic control of each sector, and which could be adjusted easily by members of staff.

Working for another major pharmaceutical organisation, we were asked to design a very specialised alarm control system which would enable the client to monitor temperature changes in a sophisticated refrigeration plant.

Temperature control was a critical factor during development of cultures and risks of fridge breakdown in subsequent storage would prove very costly if not detected instantly.

We linked an alarm system from all the fridges, which would send a signal to a central panel if any change in temperature was detected. It triggered a warning system which was in turn recorded on a computer and enabled staff to know instantly if a problem occurred. The system has the potential to save the client thousands of pounds in the long run, with reduction of substance wastage and man-hours involved in research.

Sandford was contracted to provide all the ventilation control panels for one of the largest single-occupier buildings in the UK, housing up to 8,000 people on Canary Wharf. At 44 storeys high was the UK's second tallest building. It provides more than 100,000 square metres of floor space, including three of the largest trading floors in London, executive suites, restaurants, gymnasium and underground parking. The entrance lobby rises to 28 metres in height and provides direct escalator access to three double height trading halls.

Under a clause unique to Canary Wharf, each contractor is responsible for co-ordinating with other relevant organisations working on the building. In this case the contract came to us from the duct work contractor, and proved very successful, as it gave us access to the design consultants. Consequently we were able to influence concept design of control systems at a very early stage in construction.

We had to design and manufacture control panels at strategic places on various floors. The panels had to control ventilation in all rooms, including lift motor rooms and staircases - which are positively pressurised to keep smoke out in the event of fire. There also had to be a back-up element in the event of failure. All systems were interfaced with the building's main fire dampers, which reacts differently in fire, smoke or flood situations. The sequences may change according to which floor a fire occurs on. A fire computer and building management computer monitors the status of the fans, which are a critical part of the scheme. In the mean time, air conditioning is supplied through the building via concrete shafts. In the event of a fire related event, air supply is reversed and changed into an extraction mode.

The result was a very modern and people friendly building which complies to the very latest EU regulations on health and safety. It is an energy efficient building thanks to the intelligent control systems, which monitor outputs of the air conditioning and ventilation units according to the environmental status of the building.

Product Information

The building ambient conditions are controlled and monitored via an Schneider Building Management System (BMS) which are advanced energy and cost efficient air conditioning control systems complete with an extensive back-up power system.

Various controls panels, located on the 7th and 43rd floor of the building, house starter and control equipment for the fan motors, pump motors, and air handling units. A bespoke electric heater battery thyristor controller was developed specifically for this project. Six 400 kilowatt thyristor controllers were produced for the application. This equipment is controlled and monitored by the BMS. A combination of Form 2 and Form 4 panels were used.

Additional smoke fan and pressurisation fan control panels are strategically located on various floors throughout the tower and controlled via the Cerberus fire alarm system.

Specialist plant and car park supply and extract fan control panels are located within the basement levels.

A sophisticated lift system provides rapid transit to the 39 office floors with three transfer floors allowing easy movement between lift groups.

Sandford was asked by a major pharmaceutical organisation to provide the control system for their new industrial ovens. This set-up was to replace three ageing oven lines used to dry out the constituents making up one of the company’s best selling drink powders. A control system was required which would automatically regulate the oven’s steam heating system to the required temperatures, as well as maintain the operation of the conveyor line passing the constituents into the oven. It also had to be user friendly.

Following a series of meetings, during which we established the extent of the client’s requirements, we used Alan Bradley Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) to connect and monitor a state of the art control system. It incorporated stainless steel panels and all associated control devices, including thermocouples and pneumatic valves. The whole system was designed without interrupting work in progress, and was installed during the company’s brief shutdown period.

The work was completed within a six-week time frame. The result was a system with much more capacity than the previous set-up. It was more energy efficient and its capacity resulted in time and manpower savings.

Want a company with first hand knowledge of the industrial processes essential to food production? We specialise in this area and can provide control systems which make significant long term savings in energy costs, manpower and time.