Lead times for surface-treated parts are one of the biggest surprises for engineers in production. Once you understand the reasons for the delays you can plan around them.

Process Type and Bath Availability

All processes are not run on a daily basis. Hard chrome, electroless nickel, anodising and zinc nickel plating are processes that require a dedicated bath. Smaller applicators may run a process only 2-3 times per week. Ask how often your required process is run.

Pre-Treatment Adds Days

The majority of surface treatments require a substrate to have been previously cleaned and prepared, by means of chemical cleaning, grit blasting or other mechanical means prior to coating. The process of pre-treatment can often be a separate operation, carried out on a separate production line and therefore would add days to lead times. Some parts may also require grinding or other forms of rectification prior to coating.

Drawing Clarity at Point of Order Surface Treatments is covered in more detail at https://www.poeton.co.uk/surface-treatments/.

More problems arise due to drawings being sent to surface treatment facilities that do not contain sufficient information for the coatings to be specified correctly. The information required includes coating thickness, whether masking is required and what relevant standards (e.g. AMS, DEF STAN) the coating should comply with. Send a fully dimensioned drawing together with a written specification for processing.

Batch Size and Racking Constraints

Small or large batch sizes can also cause problems. Parts need to be put on racks or fixtures to carry the current or to be put into the bath. The time spent putting parts on racks or fixturing increases in direct proportion to the quantity and complexity of the parts. Also, very odd shaped parts can need their own special fixturing which can add a day or more to lead time.

Ask the Right Questions Up Front

If you are engineering a part for surface treatment, then it is worth asking the following questions of the applicator: how often does he run the process required for your part; what pre-treatment is required for your parts; what is the maximum queue time this week. For engineered components, Poeton’s surface treatments page covers the processes mentioned above.

By asking these three simple questions you will have most of the information you need to plan your production schedule accurately. This is particularly true when working within the tighter supply chain found within UK manufacturing.

Setting up a professional kitchen involves more than simply choosing equipment. It is helpful to know what happens at each stage of the Commercial Kitchen Installation process in order to prepare for the project and avoid costly delays.

Site Survey and Utility Mapping

The first step in the process of a Commercial Kitchen Installation is a site survey. During this visit the designer will take measurements of key items such as ceiling height, doorways and drainage points. He will also look at the position of existing gas, electric and water supplies. It is always a good idea to have utility drawings of the building and those of the landlord as well. This will give the designer a better understanding of the maximum electrical load the building can take and allow him to start specifying the equipment for the Commercial Kitchen Installation.

Regulatory and Ventilation Compliance

Part of the planning will also involve checking your proposed ventilation system against Building Regulations Part F. In addition, your designer will establish the required extraction rates for the proposed appliance mix and discuss your obligations under food business registration and premises approval with the local authority. This will highlight the environmental health officers’ expectations of your proposed kitchen and help to prevent costly redesigns further down the line.

Equipment Selection and Layout Sign-Off

This stage is crucial as it sets out the workflow through your kitchen and details the designated zones for preparation, cooking, plating up and washing. It is easy to design a kitchen around the equipment you like but this can often lead to problems during the Commercial Kitchen Installation. To avoid potential problems ensure that you agree to a detailed drawing of the proposed layout before you purchase any equipment.

Phased Installation Sequencing

First the services need to be put in – the gas runs, the electrical circuits for the appliances, the drainage and the ventilation ducting. Then the bigger appliances can be moved into the kitchen and positioned as required.

Final Commissioning and Hygiene Inspection

All appliances are put through a full test at operating temperature and surfaces are deep cleaned and sanitized ready for the environmental health officer’s inspection. For Commercial Kitchen Installation, visit https://www.targetcatering.co.uk/commercial-kitchen-designers.

Knowing what each stage of a commercial kitchen installation involves will enable you to effectively brief your team, your landlord and your building contractor.

Choosing the correct fire alarm system can not be based solely on price and selecting the correct fire alarm system for your building is crucial to providing the best level of protection. The most important factor that will affect your choice of fire alarm system is the building itself and how it is used on a daily basis.

Start With a Fire Risk Assessment

A fire risk assessment is key to choosing the right fire alarm system. Most premises must carry out a workplace fire safety assessment under the UK law, and the results from this assessment should influence the choice of fire alarm system category and of fire detector types. Don’t be tempted to work from a product brochure!

Understand the BS 5839 Categories

BS 5839 categorizes fire alarm systems to help choose the most suitable. There are two main types, Life systems and Property systems. Life systems are further split into three sub-categories, L1, L2 and L3. These categories determine the amount of protection required for each area of the building and which fire detectors are required. Your fire alarm installer or fire risk assessor will be able to confirm the most suitable category for your premises.

Match Detector Types to Each Space

The appropriate choice of fire detector can make a massive difference to a fire alarm system. Smoke detectors are generally ideal for offices, corridors, and other locations where there is a moderate amount of smoke produced by a fire. Heat detectors are often preferred for use in kitchens and other locations where there is a large amount of dust in the air. They are less prone to produce false alarms for smoke, which can be extremely annoying and lead to them being ignored. Beam detectors are ideal for very large open plan locations with very high ceilings.

Think About Building Size and Occupancy

Detectors are grouped into zones for small single floor offices, however larger or more complex buildings are typically better protected by an addressable system where every detector, sounder and other device on the system is addressed and connected to the control panel and thus can be individually identified by the engineer when a fault or alarm is detected.

Choose an Experienced Local Installer

A well-chosen system is easier to maintain than one that has been chosen haphazardly.

If you are looking for Fire Alarms Northamptonshire, see //isefireproducts.co.uk/fire-alarm-systems/northamptonshire.

A well chosen system is easy to maintain and less likely to fail when you need it most.

Hydraulic rods and cylinders are subjected to high forces, movement and in many cases exposure to the elements. One of the few surface treatments that can be used to extend the life of these components beyond that of bare steel is hard chrome plating.

Hardness That Resists Rod Scoring

Hard Chrome Plating typically produces a surface hardness of 850 HV to 1,000 HV. This is higher than most steels used for hydraulic rods and therefore the chrome plated rod will not suffer from scoring due to abrasive particles in the hydraulic fluid. Such scoring can very quickly cause leakage through the worn area around the seal contact line.

Low Friction Keeps Seals Intact

Due to Chrome’s naturally low coefficient of friction it is able to create a low friction interface with hydraulic seal materials, such as PTFE and Nitrile. The low friction interface will reduce the amount of Shear Stress placed on the seal, extending its life and reducing the frequency of replacement in service, thus saving money in downtime.

Corrosion Resistance in Wet Environments

In wet environments exposed to moisture, salt, and cleaning solutions, hydraulic rods are at risk of corrosion. The chrome layer acts as a dense passive layer that will slow down corrosion.

For Chrome Plating, visit poeton.co.uk/advanced-treatments/apticote-100-hard-chrome-plating/.

Thickness Tolerances on Precision Components

Thickness of a deposit of hard chrome can be controlled to a tolerance of ± 0.005 mm. It is a material that can be plated using a variety of techniques and it is easy to apply using selective masking to re-chroming worn components such as rod, which can then be ground back to exact size.

Re-chroming as an Alternative to Replacement

This surface wear can be reversed by re-chroming the rod. In this instance wear on the rod would have been in the order of 0.1 to 0.3 mm (0.004 to 0.012) and would have been removed by chrome plating followed by a surface finish to original dimensions. The cost of re-chroming a rod would be a fraction of the cost of new components.

With the right deposit specification and process discipline hard chrome plating can double or even treble the life of hydraulic rod components.

Fix Structural Problems First

Deal with structural problems in a room first. Problems such as damp, roof damage or subsidence need to be sorted before you start decorating the room as you’ll have to redo the work to sort the problem if you’ve decorated around it and it gets worse.

Sort the Rooms You Use Every Day

We would recommend completing the rooms you use the most first. This would mean completing the kitchen and bathrooms first as these are the rooms of the house that you use the most, and if you were to leave them until last then the time it would take to complete the rest of the house could mean months of builders materials arriving at your front door, with associated chaos and pressure on your budget.

Think About Resale Value

If you’re planning to sell your home within a few years then some rooms are going to return more than others when renovated. A new kitchen or an additional bathroom are two of the best rooms to renovate as they add far more value than a newly decorated spare room. Ensure that the sequencing of the rooms that you decide to renovate are made early on in the process so you’re not wasting money on rooms that aren’t going to increase the value of your home.

Plan the Order of Trades

The order of the trades is also important. Typically plumbing and electricians need to carry out their work before the walls can be plastered. Then the floors can be covered with new carpet or laminate before the final decorating.

A useful reference for Home Renovations Burford is https://precisionbuildersltd.co.uk/services/home-renovations/burford.

Know Your Rights Before You Start

Some work will require planning permission or be subject to Building Regulations. If you are unsure of your rights and considerations when improving your home, it is worth reading up before embarking on any work, especially any structural or load-bearing work.

So remember a good order to complete your renovation will save you a lot of money so invest some time in a good plan before spending money on any work.

Removing the staff bead from an old sash window will reveal a fascinating cross-section of life in the country at the time of repair.

It starts with the timber. There’s usually a clue within the original timber of the sash frame alone to date when it was last overhauled. Georgian and Victorian buildings were typically made from slow-grown softwoods such as Scots pine or imported from other parts of Europe like Baltic redwood, hard dense timber that would last for many years before beginning to decay. Subsequent repairs however are another story. A patch made in the 1940s may well have been made from home-grown softwood, a lighter coloured timber than the original with much wider, open, straighter growth rings, which would have been the only timber available at the time due to wartime restrictions having been imposed on imports.

Next the adhesive. As mentioned, joinery adhesives were, until the mid C20, made from animal hide, usually mixed with water and then boiled for extended periods to dissolve the bones and hides. These adhesives, known as hide glues, dry to a hard, yet brittle film which will, with the passing of time, crack and fail in a very specific manner. If the joint is held together with a flexible film that peels away as opposed to crumbling, then it is likely to have been held together with a synthetic resin adhesive, most commonly used from the late 1940s onwards.

Fasteners are also readable. Hand cut nails have tapered shanks and were cut by hand. Wire nails are round in cross section and were machine made. In Britain wire nails became common in the 1890s. A screw with a single slot and tapered tip is pre 1930s whilst a cross head screw is younger still. Historic England’s guide to historic timber repairs looks at the various materials used in joinery and their dates and how to recognise them when assessing historic joinery. The joiner’s marks left by earlier joiners are also important to recognise and Historic England also give advice on this in their guide to historic timber repairs. There is a useful background explanation of Historic England’s guidance on historic timber repairs.

The painted-over shim is perhaps the most telling thing of all. A thin piece of wood had been inserted between the frame and the sash box, to straighten a frame that had begun to rack. And once straight, it had been painted three times, and then left.

Good sash window repair today leaves its own layer in this record – the epoxy consolidants, the stainless fixings, the particular filler profiles that will puzzle someone in 2125. For Sash Window Repair contact www.sashwindowpreservation.co.uk/services/sash-window-repair/.

Each generation of joiners has left their mark on a building whether they meant to or not.