Since joining Lerch Bates, Jane has adopted a hands on approach to running the finances of the business. With a strong focus on transparency, she actively promotes awareness which makes informed decisions that much easier.

Lerch Bates Chairman, Adrian Godwin, will be  presenting a paper entitled : “Skytrak” – An   Elevator System for the 21st Century.

Adrian’s paper will describe the ideas behind “Skytrak” and the key inventions that have solved the inherent problems of having lifts without counterweights. It also poses the question to the lift industry “Where, when and who is willing to exploit this technology?”

The Association of University Engineers (AUE) was formed in 1970 by a small group of University Engineers who wanted to create a ‘networked union of like minded people’. It has representation from well over 100 universities throughout the UK, Northern Ireland and Eire.

For more information on the AUE Conference
 

Lerch Bates Chairman, Adrian Godwin, will be presenting a paper entitled ‘Adsimulo – An expert system for the design of passenger lift services’.

With computing power ever cheaper the author of this paper has led a development team to produce an independent design application that ensures that the most space efficient “elevatoring” solutions are identified automatically for any proposed building. The application is a world’s first and is also capable of delivering visualisation of passengers using the lift services as well as generating a generic BIM output file for the building designer. The simulations run very fast and typically can handle 1500 hours of simulations in around two minutes. Such gains in productivity are vital to ensuring clients receive best advice promptly.

For further details on Elevcon 2012

The Conference provides an opportunity to find out about the latest developments in procurement and to brush up on the skills needed to face the challenges ahead. Attending the event will be Procurement Managers, buyers and end users from member institutions involved in purchasing a range of goods and services. Exhibitors at the Conference will be from across all commodity areas and the exhibition is an important part of the event.

The University of Sheffield’s Arts Tower lit up the Sheffield Skyline last week with an illuminating display of colour in celebration of its extensive refurbishment, which has taken three years to complete. The Grade 2-Listed building – the UK’s tallest university structure – was bathed in a different colour each night, beginning on Monday 27 February 2012.

A special ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of the £36 million refurbishment with tours of the building and the turning on of the lights. The celebration was attended by University of Sheffield alumnus and former staff member the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Dr Sylvia Dunkley.

The work on the Arts Tower was the largest single investment of the £50 million total that the University has spent in the last three years to preserve and develop its historic estate. Lerch Bates worked with the University of Sheffield modernising a large range of lift equipment, including a ‘paternoster’ lift installation which is the tallest surviving paternoster lift in the UK.  An important criterion for the university was the energy efficiency of the modernised lift equipment. In order to monitor changes in energy efficiency we examined a passenger lift and made readings of its energy consumption over a period of some weeks. The lift was then modernised to our specification and the energy consumption again checked over a similar period for comparison. Because of the major change undertaken with the drive and control equipment the modernised lift now consumes 85% less energy!

In 1994 he joined a small successful start-up company (Eyretel in Horsham) as an Electronics/Production Engineer within the Engineering department, developing hardware appliances for telephone call recording equipment. Within the same company, he was promoted to a number of different positions including Project Manager for a number of software and hardware projects before leaving in 2004 to join a partner company (Adtech in Leatherhead) as Programme Manager. Here, Darren was responsible for managing multiple product and project developments, managing these developments through to a sub-contracted electronics manufacturing company and then on to the customer. This role included  setting up and managing the internal Quality Management, Product Compliance and Regulatory Approvals Systems.

In 2010 Darren took up the new position of Business Support and Quality Manager encompassing most of his previous role as Programme Manager, but additionally responsible for Systems Design, Professional and Support Services provision and ownership/management of the Quality Management System, achieving external accreditation for ISO9001:2008 with BSI.

Darren joined Lerch Bates in January 2012 as Quality Assurance and Systems Manager where he is responsible for continuously improving and maintaining the accredited ISO9001 Quality Management System and overseeing the continued development and improvements to the company’s internal information systems. Other responsibilities include project management of new applications and products to assist Lerch Bates to automate data collection and reporting.

To celebrate the festive season we gave readers of our newsletter the opportunity to win a magnum of Veuve Clicquot Champagne. All they had to do was spot the four differences between our Christmassy Professor Elbies. 

The correct entries were placed into a draw and we are delighted to announce the winner:

Philip Burrow – University of Exeter

Many congratulations Philip and the Champagne is winging its way to you!

Jason joined Lerch Bates in October 2011 as a Design Engineer/Document Controller in the New Development department. His work is concerned with all aspects of vertical transportation design, responsible for providing supporting design for major projects in London, Europe, UAE and Moscow.

Designed by Architect, Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, the gallery was first opened in 1889. Located on a hill overlooking Edinburgh, the building cut quite a swath with its grand, neo-gothic facades of red sandstone dwarfing the street below. But a hundred years on and the gallery’s fortunes have changed considerably. Things became so bad that by the mid-1990s the gallery was on the brink of closure.

Something had to be done…

In 2009 renovation work began with the aim of the project to restore and reveal much of Anderson’s work within the building and to show many more works of art than were previously on display. The development of the gallery as a first-class visitor experience was also paramount to National Galleries of Scotland as the original gallery was a gift to the Scottish people.

In the original building, movement around galleries was very restricted so the project architects, Page/Park, decided to transform circulation routes and improve access. This has been achieved with the design of a bespoke 48-person capacity hydraulically powered glass lift running through the core of the gallery. Lerch Bates has worked with Page/Park since the early design conception to bring a lift that is not only functional in terms of moving people and artifacts but, as it has three sides and the roof completely made from glass, also provides the perfect viewpoint as it moves slowly through the gallery.