We enjoyed a good conference at the Royal Air Force Club this year, renewing our relationship with this first class location in the heart of London. The well attended event included many of our important customers, some large, some small but mostly vocal when it came to the forum. The conference included the informal launch of our newly formed Collaborative Construction Compliance group which we have had the pleasure of leading.
Our guest speaker, Professor Ragnar Lofstedt, Director of Risk Management at King's College London, introduced us to the legislative process within the UK for health and safety and risk management. He included a review of the now well-known Lofstedt Report presented to our parliamentarians last November. He pointed towards Brussels too and suggested that delegates should be interested in supporting the UK health & safety cause. The corridors there are bereft of UK voices in an environment where we are 'ahead' in our thinking in many health & safety matters but are in danger of being side-lined by those who do make their presence known. We discussed the need to attract new blood into the health and safety industry at the Further Education stage.
Our Collaborative Construction Compliance speakers spoke about how they each work within the group using ToolKit CS™ as a portal or switchboard to gain access to any of the collaborator's databases licensed to the user. This is a major step forward in cutting down on the time and cost of systems management. By 'sharing information' instead of data duplication time is saved, along with this, your staffing/resource can be better deployed - this will aid you in saving costs and in the current climate we all have to make the best of current resources. If you would like to find out more about the collaboration please visit the www.collaborativecc.co.uk or call a member of the team on 01525 850080.
Copies of our speakers' slides are on our web site if you would like to see them.
Researchers at Northumbria University team are developing 'self-healing' concrete and a repair mortar which can be used on existing buildings. Concrete cancer is caused by the swelling and breaking of concrete and is estimated to cost billions of pounds worth of damage to buildings.
We are sure you all remember the Hammersmith flyover being closed over Christmas and the consequences of the failure. This was a direct consequence of concrete-cancer. The costs are astronomical; not only to traffic diversions,but the costs of ensuring it was 'fit for purpose'.
The Northumbria research team are using a ground-borne bacteria - bacillus megaterium - to create calcite, a crystalline form of natural calcium carbonate. This can then be used to block the concrete's pores, keeping out water and other damaging substances to prolong the life of a building. The bacteria is grown on a nutrient broth of yeast, minerals and urea and is then added to the concrete. With its food source in the concrete, the bacteria breeds and spreads, acting as a filler to seal the cracks and prevent further deterioration.
The benefits of this new product are obvious to the buidling industry. It is great to see new innvovations coming along and we look forward to the future development of the products.
The following are a selection of the latest articles from the Ai Solutions Blog. Each linked article allows comments, so please add your thoughts using the boxes provided.
We regularly receive updates from our customers and contacts about changes to legislation, the latest rumours and so on. We try to be selective with what we pass on and acknowledge our sources as appropriate. If you have information of general interest in the Health & Safety, and particularly, CDM and Asbestos Management arena, then please let us know by e-mail if possible.