Painting trends in the automotive related industries

Industrial painting technology companies these days offer innovative solutions from pre-treatment, equipment and application technology and paint systems up to pre-painted foils for component manufacturing.

Success painting in the automotive and related industries is marked by the ability to master the balancing act between quality, cost and sustainability.
Improving the ecological balance sheet, increasing efficiency and further enhancing quality are goals the automotive industry and its suppliers cannot afford to ignore.
Paint which is strong and has long-lasting resistance to mechanical, chemical and physical attacks during the car’s service life is essential.
At the same time, global competition necessitates an ever more efficient and sustainable painting process.

Conservation of resources in pre-treatment
In order to provide bodies in white and metallic car parts with effective corrosion protection and ideal paint adhesion, they are subjected to conventional zinc phosphating during pre-treatment.
However, phosphating processes which involve the use of heavy metals are being replaced by nano-ceramic processes.
This trend is based on the ecological and economic advantages of these technologies, which are compatible with a multitude of metals.
The products are free of heavy metals, something which significantly reduces the costs and effort associated with wastewater treatment, disposal, equipment cleaning and system maintenance.
Furthermore, the coating can be applied before liquid painting or powder coating by means of an immersion or spray technique at room temperature. This results in further cost reductions.
New technologies such as CO2 snow-jet cleaning are displacing conventional power washers more and more frequently for the pre-treatment of attachment parts and interior components made of plastic. This is due to savings amounting to as much as 50 percent for investment costs, 20 percent for operating costs and up to 80 percent for floor space requirements. The compact systems are easy to integrate into the painting line.

Painting with fewer process steps
Filler-free painting systems are on the advance all over the world. The function of the filler coat is usually fulfilled for this so-called integrated concept by a water-based paint system.
In comparison with conventional painting processes, this makes it possible to reduce energy consumption by 15-20 percent by eliminating the intermediate drying process.
At the same time, the filler-free painting process reduces solvent emissions and eliminates the need for the system’s filler section.
These economic and ecological advantages have triggered a trend towards a two-coat finish without primer for coating plastic attachment parts.
Solutions for injection moulded interior parts such as trim strips are already available which provide the components with a fine, high gloss finish using just a single coat painting process.

Only as much paint as necessary
In order to realise potential savings in the painting process, possible causes of loss must be eradicated such as atomiser over-spray, as well as losses due to colour changeovers during application and in the paint supply lines.
Savings of this sort can often be implemented quickly and in a targeted fashion by modifying specific system characteristics.
One approach involves increasing transfer efficiency by using a spray pattern which is matched to the geometry of the part to be painted, as well as electrostatically supported paint guns and high-speed rotary atomisers. Transfer efficiencies of greater than 90 percent are achieved with the latter.
Where hydro paints are concerned, new electrical isolation systems which are located directly on the robot arm are also making a contribution in this respect.
They allow for minimised use of rinsing agents and shortened colour changeover times as well. Beyond this, the fine atomisation patterns achieved with electrostatic high-speed rotary atomisers open up the possibility of reducing air sinking speed in the booth, which results in energy savings.
The increasing degree of automation through the use of robots, for interior painting of auto bodies as well, is also leading to reduced paint consumption.
Further advantages include improved reproducibility of painting results and less scrap. Another positive side effect of using painting robots is the fact that it’s easier to switch from fresh exhaust air systems to recirculating air for conditioning the paint booth. This can result in energy savings amounting to as much as 60-70 percent.
Intelligent paint logistics also result in reduced material consumption. For example, pipe-clearing technology makes it possible to recover unused paint from the feed lines and to dose defined quantities of paint to the application equipment for special paint coatings.

Extending the new car effect
Matte clear lacquers are in fashion. Robust, easy to care for and relatively insensitive, they provide vehicles manufactured in small batches with an individual appearance.
One of the focal points of high-gloss clear lacquers is increased scratch-resistance which extends the new car effect. Innovative developments are available to this end, which combine the advantages of “hard” inorganic substances and “soft” organic substances.
A nano sol-gel process is also being used for mass production by the suppliers to the automobile manufacturers. It’s applied to high-gloss anodised, decorative aluminium parts in order to furnish them with a transparent protective coating which is highly resistant to scratching. Further applications for sol-gel technology are currently being tested by the automotive industry.
The significance of UV paints in the automotive industry continues to grow as well for painting plastic as well as metal substrates. In addition to excellent resistance to scratching, other reasons for this include the possibility of reducing energy and raw materials consumption, as well as harmful emissions. A further advantage is greatly reduced paint drying time. Thanks to UV curing in an inert gas atmosphere, a hurdle has been cleared in the drying of large complex components, for instance axles.

From the pre-painted foil to components
The trend towards lighter, less expensive automobiles which burn less fuel and electric cars, will certainly be spurred on by foil technology. Foils made of polycarbonate blends, for example, are coated during an initial process step with a water-based paint which can be deep drawn. A clear coat is then applied that consists of a dual-cure UV paint which is first thermally dried and covered with a protective foil.
After the foil has been cut to size it’s deep drawn to the desired shape, for example as a roof module or a spoiler. Subsequent UV curing provides the component with a scratch-resistant surface. Strength is added by means of foaming-in from behind.

For more information:
PaintExpo will take place at the exhibition centre in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 17-20 April 2012.
PaintExpo covers the entire process sequence in the field of coating technology and offers a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in the areas of liquid painting, powder coatings and foil coating, as well as paints and pre-treatment.
Visit: www.paintexpo.com

Design safety discussed in explosive conference session

Oil and gas operators need to place an even greater emphasis on safety in the design of oil and gas facilities to safeguard against explosion accidents, according to Dr Madhat Abdel-jawad, president of GexCon Australia.

Dr Abdel-jawad will present a ‘Safety in Design’ conference presentation at the Australasian Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference in Perth later this month. He will  explore the industry’s understanding of explosions and review some important lessons in explosion risk for oil and gas installations.

He says the oil and gas industry had made great strides in the safe design of installations in recent years, but stresses there was still much room for improvement.
"Often you find that this emphasis on safety in design is location and activity dependent. We all can do more in placing emphasis on safety and make it a key design parameter.
"With ever improving computing power, we are able to carry out far more detailed analysis of explosion consequences than in the past,” says Dr Abdel-jawad.

GexCon has carried out a number of significant explosion experiments since the 1970s with the aim of increasing understanding of explosion phenomena and has also investigated well-known explosion accidents such as Piper Alpha and Buncefield.

Dr Abdel-jawad says industry understanding of explosions has increased dramatically since the 1970s, but a number of problems remained unsolved.
“Large industrial accidents like the Piper Alpha explosion and the Buncefield incident have not only forced us to increase our understanding of explosion phenomena, but have resulted in paradigm shifts in the field,” he says.
“Despite our significant leaps forward in understanding, there are several areas where we have a long way to go. Some problems, such as the effect of turbulence on deflagration to detonation transition, will be around for many years to come.”

Dr Abdel-jawad says he hopes conference delegates will come away from his presentation with a greater understanding and awareness of explosion phenomena and some tips on how to design facilities to safeguard against explosions.

Safety and integrity high on the agenda
The presentation by Dr Abdel-jawad is just one in an entire programme dedicated to safety and integrity management at the conference.
Other highlights will include a presentation from Norton Rose partner Michael Tooma on design failures at the heart of recent major disasters across the oil and gas and nuclear and mining industries.

There will be a discussion on managing the risks of floating liquefied natural gas with Jeff  Baker, the energy business manager of Lloyds Register Asia in Western Australia.

The Australasian Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference 2012 takes place at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre from 22-24 February.
For more information or to register:
Visit: www.aogexpo.com.au

Compressed air or hot air

By Mike Bishara

The partners developing the compressed-air Tata taxi van and the MDI AIRPod are both talking up the imminent availability of their offerings. Tata Motors holds a license for India from MDI and is a primary funder of the Luxembourg company which has a production factory in France and holds patents on compressed air engine improvements in 127 countries.

MDI says the exclusive licence agreement with Tata since 2007 has the R&D department of the Indian company involved in further development and refinement of the technology.

There are plenty of sceptics and a frustrated list of licensees around the world who point to the repeated promises on the launch date for a model good enough to be mass produced. In late 2009 MDI was guaranteeing mass-production of AIRPods within a few months at its development base in France.

An equal number of devotees build their hopes around the growing number of successful trials on the technology despite a 20 year gestation period and mutter about a fossil fuel conspiracy to keep the vehicle off the streets.

Tata Motors six-seat van has a range of around 300km before the two 340-litre carbon fibre gas tanks need to be topped up with air to 4350psi. The van will be filled up at specially equipped stations in about four minutes for about US$2, or with the generator pack supplied with the car in about four hours.

Light-weight fibre glass panels are glued to keep weight down, resulting in a top speed of about 105km/h, the company says.

The van is expected to be on the streets by the fourth quarter of this year at a cost of about US$12,700.

Air only - from zero to minus 15 degrees Celsius - is emitted from the exhaust which makes it great for an air-conditioning bypass in tropical climates but not so good for heating in European winters. All in-car equipment is controlled by an electrically driven microprocessor.

The latest version of the MDI AIRPod was released in November last year with claims that "this version is packed with innovative devices not encountered in conventional vehicles. The cutting-edge technologies deployed are simply beyond the bounds of normal cars of similar value," the company reports.
•    MDI says cost and production times have been reduced, the vehicle is lighter and contains a lot less number of components. Engine performance, stability and handling have been improved.
•    "After conducting intense research and trials, a base consisting of a composite sandwich of fibreglass and polyurethane has been incorporated, providing the vehicle with over 30 functionalities. A cast aluminium frame fixed to this base holds the mechanical components such as the engine, the transmission, the suspension and the wheels. "
•    The report says this type of architecture is normally only available on high-end sports cars using carbon fibre. MDI has opted for fibreglass instead of carbon fibre making the technology available to other licensed manufacturers of MDI vehicles.
•    This makes sense given the background of MDI chief executive Guy Negre, a mechanical engineer with a strong background in Formula 1. He created a rotary distribution device for an R8 Gordini which produced 152 HP at 11,000 rpm, light aircraft engines and the 3.5 litre W 12 engine for Formula 1 races in the 1980s.

He started MDI in 1991 with about 160 investors to "promote and develop ecological energies" and "conceive and produce non-pollutant vehicles and systems".

Negre's version of a compressed air engine has been in development for over 20 years and beset with problems, many of them related to funding, before a white knight injection of cash and research capability from Tata.

Fifty engineers and technicians work on the compressed air vehicles with the support of Tata Motors, the exclusive licensee for MDI technologies in India since 2007.

The agreement provides that Tata will support the technologies final development and optimisation for their use in India while the rest of the world is licensed for turnkey factories for the manufacturing and commercialisation of its products.

Still it is frustrating for a band of faithful licensees.

Zero Pollution Motors holds a license to produce the cars in the US market and has advised the press since 2008 that it expects to produce its first air-powered car "next year". It may have lost interest, its domain name has been suspended.

Bickering has broken out between MDI and Swiss investor Catecar S.A. which paid more than US$740,000 to produce MDI cars in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Catecar was expecting to begin production in 2010 but MDI says it needs to pay an additional fee before the technology will be transferred.

In New Zealand Christchurch-based alternative energy developer IndraNet Technologies is said to be becoming frustrated with a lack of progress in its proposed joint venture IT MDI-Energy Ltd with MDI, first to build and sell compressed air engines to test point-of-use power generation in Australia and New Zealand before introducing AIRPods which the company says are not suitable for New Zealand or Australian roads.

Compressed-air has been used to power vehicles for more than 100 years with only limited success except in the mining sector where a combustion-free energy source was needed. Electric motors ultimately proved to be more efficient. Korea's Energine Corporation claimed that it was going to deliver a hybrid compressed-air/electric car but this failed to materialise. In France K’Airmobiles was unable to raise continued funding for its compressed air concept after engineers who worked on the project said low-running-temperature problems made the project unfeasible.

$63m contract awarded to Dunedin company

By Peter Owens

Hillside Engineering Group is a division of KiwiRail Limited. It is also a major New Zealand heavy engineering company. The massive buildings housing Hillside’s operations have been familiar to thousands of sports fans for well over 100 years as they loom over the northern end of Carisbrook Ground, the scene of many international sporting features.
However, few of those thousands ever really knew just what went on at the Hillside plant. In fact the Hillside Workshops (as they were then known), were built late last century to build and maintain rolling stock for New Zealand Railways, a government department. New Zealand Railways also established a similar facility at Addington in Christchurch. This was closed some years ago and no trace of it exists anymore.
Hillside became the sole engineering facility for New Zealand Rail and retained that role when the government sold its entire interests to Toll Holdings Limited. However, its entire undertaking was incorporated into a number of registered companies, which today operate under the name of the Hillside Engineering Group. From being a government department Hillside became a commercial entity. It could no longer rely on Government financial backing and had to stand on its own financial feet.
From being regarded as just another government operation from the grey days when the government tightly controlled the New Zealand economy, Hillside Engineering Group is now highly regarded for its work both in Dunedin and throughout New Zealand.
Hillside current operations consist of a Components Unit, which incorporates a machine shop, Inventory group and foundry, and a Projects Unit, which performs all project work, both fabrication and refurbishment. In doing this the group has joined the mainstream of the long tradition of heavy engineering in Dunedin. This began in the 1860s with the gold rushes and which has continued, unabated since that time.
Since incorporation, Hillside Engineering is no longer just focussed on railway work. According to site manager, Kevin Kearney, it is now active in the New Zealand heavy engineering market. In order to establish itself in this role, the group has now focussed on providing value added products and services, while building strong business relationships with its customers and suppliers.
Having done this, Hillside aims to maintain its leading position in the heavy engineering industry by ensuring staff are not only qualified and competent for the tasks they are required to undertake, but also adaptable to every change of circumstances that may arise. At the same time, the group’s organisational knowledge and capacity and performance are constantly under review.
Currently, Hillside is working on a $63 million, two-year contract to rebuild 36 railcars, imported from Britain, for Auckland metropolitan rail. These are 30 SA railcars and six SD railcars from British Rail. The first of the “remanufactured” railcars will be commissioned in June next year and all 36 will be in operation by the end of 2010.
The latest contract will bring to 104 the number of SA-SD railcars delivered to the Auckland Regional Transport Authority from Hillside.
Other engineering companies in the Dunedin area have welcomed the $63 million contract with the Auckland Regional Authority. Hillside Engineering Group is a company member of the Dunedin City Council Engineering Cluster.
This is a corporate engineering cluster of companies facilitated by the Dunedin City Council’s Economic Development Unit. Members co-operate in the completion of large contracts undertaken by individual members. It means Dunedin engineering companies can confidently tender for major contracts even when they themselves do not have all the skilled staff or facilities to undertake the work by themselves.
Having won the Auckland Regional Authority contract to “re-manufacture” the 36 railcars from the United Kingdom, Hillside Engineering will be sub-contracting a significant section of the work to other companies in Dunedin.
Since 2004 Hillside Engineering Group has won contracts worth $150 million. Kevin Kearney believes the new government ownership of the rail network may increase further business opportunities.
KiwiRail now owns about 150 locomotives, most of which are more than 30 years old, plus 3500-4000 rail wagons around the country, including many out of commission and requiring repair or replacement.

Kiwi consumer and local manufacturing trade interests have been grabbed by the 'gentailers'

By Kevin Kevaney

At stake right now is the right of the Kiwi consumer to control how much each household spends on electricity, while enjoying a standard of living and comfort appropriate for a fi rst world country. Instead, the ‘gentailers’ are again arbitrarily doing exactly what protects their short-term profi ts and postpones their deadlines for further investment in infrastructure.

The industry has not come up with any technological improvement in how we manage hotwater on tap, in a century. We never needed to bother before, and now the answer seems to be (1) shut it off when you go to work and get the kids to switch it back on when they come home from school, or (2) squeeze the showerhead and start the clock, so you learn to have shorter and shorter showers.
The on-going debate in the media and public forums between Dr Jan Wright, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and, amongst others, the respected power industry consultant, Bryan Leyland, initially on (un)‘smart’ metering and lately on antiquated ripple control’ (big brother arbitrarily shutting off hotwater at the most inconvenient time), demonstrates the true interests of the New Zealand consumer have been grabbed by the ‘gentailers’. The situation has been further agitated by the Commerce Commission’s decision to prosecute bathroom fittings company, Methven NZ, for some of its claims on low-flow showerheads allegedly being shown to be questionable. “Yes, remarkably ‘gentailers’ is a self-generated description, inflicted on themselves by the electricity generator and retailing oligopoly, in a display of arrogance and total control few other industries dare to emulate,” says Brian Knolles, CEO of the Senztek Group, manufacturer of New Zealand’s leading solar hotwater heating controller, SolaStat, which is rapidly expanding its market share in Australia and further afield.
He points out that early 20th century ripple control punishes total suburbs randomly, taking away individual rights and responsibilities. “It is about as relevant to New Zealand today as opting for ‘6pm closing’ as a solution to binge-drinking.”
Knolles believes the real issue which should be concerning our electricity industry is the need for consumers to manage the temperature of the water in hotwater cylinders, in each and every home, automatically, to suit the desired usage profile of that particular household.
“It’s the householder who should be in control of the amount of energy used at particular times of the day, and most importantly, the lower-tariff night. The industry needs a modern technological solution to make the heating of stored water in a home more efficient,” Knolles says.
The massive Government funding to insulate homes (34 per cent of our electricity usage) and next to nothing on hotwater (29 per cent of consumption), according to EECA’s own figures, is an example of good intentions rather than an understanding of the total problem of energy wastage in homes.
“At the very least, the government should be splitting that funding across space-heating (insulation) and hotwater heating.” According to Knolles, the facts are: ‘selfish’ meters being installed provide no display for the consumer. They give no control to the bill-payer. And they are not linked to tariffs which favour the consumer, rather than the industry big boys.
“At stake right now is the right of the Kiwi consumer to control how much each household spends on electricity, while enjoying a standard of living and comfort appropriate for a first world country. Instead, the ‘gentailers’ are again arbitrarily doing exactly what protects their short-term profits and postpones their deadlines for further investment in infrastructure.
“And the higgledy-piggledy, ad hoc manner, supposedly shows the ‘competition’ in the industry, when it is nothing more than a cynically created illusion thereof.
“When they talk amongst themselves, the ‘gentailers’, of course, are hugely keen on the job-reduction capacity of their new meters, which will effectively ‘read themselves’, thereby putting more New Zealanders out of a job at the very worst time.”
Knolles believes Dr Wright to be a thoughtful and responsible bureaucrat who gets close to an individual consumer solution when she recently called for “sophisticated, subtler and far less intrusive control of smart water heaters and other appliances”, which will lead to every Kiwi home “gaining much greater individual control of their electricity use”.
“Bearing in mind that her brief is the ‘environment’, with all that goes with that word today, hers is a very positive outlook for individual rights and has a decidedly consumer-oriented tone. Consumers want to reduce their overall power consumption; reduce their household’s peak usage; and restrict their expenditure, with as little impact on their living conditions as possible.
“For those – the greatest majority by far – who care both for our degrading environment and shrivelling household budgets, the focal point of all this steam-letting will be in our hotwater cylinders, especially in a cold winter which is currently adding to the gloom.”
Knolles notes abundant, cheap hotwater in homes (when petrol costed less than a litre of Coke), were symbolic of the abundant lifestyle of the last 100-years, ‘sustained’, as they were, by “the massive investment in infrastructure that was de rigueur in those days”. “So what technological developments have we seen? Other than the very basic insulation blanket our hotwater cylinders and their delivery pipes are now lagged in: nothing.” Using technology as a starting point, locally-owned, West Auckland based Senztek, the major supplier of solar hot
water heating controllers to the local industry, and a rapidly growing force in Australia, recently adapted its technology to be the basis of the EcoStat hotwater management system. This will peak the water temperature weekly (to combat Legionnaire’s Disease); match the household’s hotwater usage pattern to ensure adequate availability; and reduce the power usage – creating a significant saving. The system pays for itself in a short time and continues to deliver energy-
efficient usage for the life of the house. And you will probably only ever change the simple settings once the kids have left home. Interest in the product from as far away as the UK has been dramatic. Kiwi ingenuity showing the world how and challenging all electricity industries to be more analytical, embrace modern technology and acknowledge less will not necessarily mean more – intelligent usage of a resource will. Knolles reckons we are all effectively doing the equivalent of driving our cars without a fuel gauge and having to follow a hunch on when to ‘fill-her-up’? Or having a kettle boil 24/7 to cover the three-to-four cups of tea we might drink in the period.

Timber alternatives ease earthquake concerns

The experience of rebuilding the Italian town of L’Aquila after its devastating earthquake in 2009 showed people who have been through such disasters have a preference for timber, according to Italian engineers.
Engineer Paolo Lavisci from the Society of Engineers in Italy said the people in L’Aquila "were asking for no more concrete" immediately after the earthquake.
Since then, the use of wood in construction has taken off in Italy. "Now we have completed designs for six and eight storeys and are designing for 12 storeys for large ‘traditional’ building companies who just a year ago would never even commission a timber house."
The shallow 5.8 magnitude earthquake killed 308 people, destroyed up to 11,000 buildings and left 65,000 of the medieval town’s population of around 100,000 homeless.
Mr Lavisci’s company won a tender, along with several other contractors, to build a number of three storey, 27-apartment blocks using timber. Their construction took only 72 days – and only 14 days for the erection of the watertight outer shell.
Made from cross-laminated timber sections, the completed block weighed around 430 tonnes compared with what would have been more than 2000 tonnes in concrete.
The lower mass weight of a building, can lessen the damage sustained from earthquakes.
Dr Geoff Thomas from Victoria University’s School of Architecture says earthquake loads or forces on a building are also proportional to its weight.
"A timber building, typically lighter than a brick, concrete or steel building, therefore induces lower earthquake loads."
Being inherently lighter and more flexible, timber buildings need not be as strong as a more rigid structure in order to resist the same level of earthquake shaking.
"In the event of a collapse, survival is much more likely in timber buildings as the lower weight of any falling debris from the structure is less likely to cause serious injury than that of heavier materials," Dr Thomas says.
"Understanding these facts has resulted in better building design which saved many lives in the Christchurch and other earthquakes around the world."
Dr Thomas said that timber buildings of six stories or more are now being designed and built to resist earthquake loads. 
A team of University of Canterbury researchers Alessandro Palermo, Andy Buchanan and Stefano Pampanin invented in 2005 an innovative "Pres Lam’ seismic system, which uses laminated veneer lumber (LVL) to form large shear walls which are post-tensioned to the ground using embedded high-strength steel rods, which have been tested to withstand earthquake loads.
The $6 million Carterton Events Centre, used this system.
Opus senior structural engineer Dave Dekker said the Pres Lam system allowed walls to rock back and forth in an earthquake, absorbing earthquake energy as they move.
"It significantly reduces the amount of movement and damage to a building during an earthquake, meaning fewer repairs for the building after a large quake, not to mention overall safety.
"The design of the post-tensioned rods causes the building to return to a vertical position, rather than to the angle the building happens to be at once the shaking stops."
The post-tensioned LVL system was developed as an alternative to the same system constructed in concrete.
Just north of the centre of London is the world’s tallest modern-timber residential building. It stands at nine storeys, the top eight being constructed from cross-laminated solid timber.
The building is the first of this height to construct load bearing walls and floor slabs as well as stair and lift cores entirely from timber.
Each panel is made up of five layers of timber crossing each other, making a panel that could be compared to precast concrete.
Doors and window openings are pre-cut into the panels during manufacturing and the panels arrive at site in lengths up to nine metres long. Assembled using cordless drills, there were only five people on site and they worked only three days a week. The building was completed within 49 weeks.
Plumbers and electricians installing the pipe supports and cable trays suspended under the floor had no worries about concrete dust or the time it took to install a fixing. The panels had passage ways within the panels to feed cables and services through.
Other cost savings were achieved as there was no need to build a basement to house the plant for the renewable energy component, saving time and holding costs.
Architect, Andrew Waugh says that the "overall cost was much the same as for a steel or concrete building."
Timber was used partly because of a City of London planning requirement for a 10 percent reduction in carbon through on-site renewable energy generation.
This building is a result of the practice’s research in reducing the carbon emissions, not only of the finished building but of the whole build process.
Waugh Thistleton Architects estimate the wooden structure of the building will store over 186 tonnes of carbon for its lifetime.
By not using more traditional concrete building techniques, a further 125 tonnes of carbon is saved from entering the atmosphere. They anticipated carbon emissions saved from a building of this size to be the equivalent to 21 years of use.

For more information, contact:
Brian Langham, NZ Wood
Tel: 021 784 626
E-mail: brian [at] nzwood [dot] co [dot] nz

Paolo Lavisci
Society of Engineers, Italy
Tel: +39 335 213568
Email: paolo [dot] lavisci [at] strutturedilegno [dot] it

Geoff Thomas
Victoria University
Tel: 04 463 6247

Stefano Pampanin
University of Canterbury
Tel: 03 364 2249 ext 6249
E-mail: stefano [dot] pampanin [at] canterbury [dot] ac [dot] nz

Alessandro Palermo
University of Canterbury
Tel: 03 364 2987, internal 8867
E-mail: alessandro [dot] palermo [at] canterbury [dot] ac [dot] nz

Andy Buchanan
University of Canterbury
Tel: 03 364 2987 ext 6243
Email: andy [dot] buchanan [at] canterbury [dot] ac [dot] nz

Andrew Waugh
Waugh Thistleton Architects
United Kingdom
Tel: 44 20 7613 5727
Visit: www.waughthistleton.com
Stradthaus project video via: http://www.nzwood.co.nz/case-studies/murray-grove-tower/

Brightwater Engineering takes aboard Brightwater Meo to benefit clients and open up opportunities across the group

CASE STUDY

Three years ago Meo Engineering Group became part of the Brightwater Group and became known as Brightwater Meo.
It was run within the Brightwater Group as a standalone profit centre contributing some $6 million in yearly revenue through the first quarter of 2011.
Brightwater Meo provided electrical control and automation expertise to the group and its own projects – and mechanical and electrical professional services to New Zealand Steel.
The Brightwater Group restructuring at the end of March created three companies: Brightwater Engineering, which includes Brightwater Meo, Brightwater Manufacturing, which brings into its folds the former Christchurch-based Screening and Crushing Solutions business unit; and Brightwater Services, which incorporates the former services section of Brightwater Meo.
Most of the group’s 300 personnel will be under the Engineering division, which will continue to bring in the bulk of the group’s yearly revenue.

Benefits of restructuring
Brightwater Engineering general manager Peter Reiber says good synergies between the then Meo Engineering and Brightwater Engineering were apparent as early as 2007, when the former worked as a contractor on the Laminex heat generation energy plant in Gympie, Queensland, Australia and the Pike River Coal road-to-rail transfer terminal in Ikamatua.
He says the latest restructuring, which fully integrates Brightwater Meo into Brightwater engineering, is “the next logical step” to further those synergies.
“This integration is an exciting development in the evolution of the Brightwater Group and will be an important vehicle for cementing an integrated, professional offering of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and industrial automation capabilities to industry.
“That really allows Brightwater Engineering, now that it is a completely, vertically integrated turnkey solutions provider, to cover all of the key professional engineering activities associated with Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects,” Mr Reiber says.

Enhanced expertise under a different name
The disciplines Brightwater Meo had prior to integration, being electrical engineering, design, industrial automation and control, will still be provided to all the different industries, but under the name of Brightwater Engineering, says Mr Reiber.
“It doesn’t mean we’d stop doing what we are good at. Now with a fully integrated operation, our offerings to businesses will be completely seamless,” Mr Reiber says.
The way Brightwater Group has been restructured, anything associated with engineering risk or design that the Manufacturing and Services divisions require, be they mechanical or electrical in nature, will be rendered by the engineering division, which has offices in Nelson and Auckland in New Zealand, and Perth and Melbourne in Australia.
“If Services are doing a major shut on a job and they require some engineering design work to be done to complete that shut, then Engineering will provide design services. In the same way, if Manufacturing is building a new crusher then Engineering will deliver the electrical and control system design that needs to be installed in that machine,” Mr Reiber says.

Full engineering resources
With full Brightwater Engineering resources available out of the Auckland office, existing clients of the former Brightwater Meo will benefit from an increased depth of mechanical engineering, design and project management capability.
The Auckland office will be pivotal in accommodating the increase in technical resources required to support the growth of the engineering business, and will play an active role in positioning and growing the awareness and capability of Brightwater Engineering in the Northern Region, Mr Reiber says.
“In addition to that, expertise will come out of the Auckland office, which is the centre of excellence for the Group’s electrical and automation offering, and will provide the platform for engineering to get involved in other industries like discrete manufacturing and food processing.”
The Auckland office will continue to provide professional engineering services to New Zealand Steel, through its team of engineers based at Glenbrook, about 60 kilometres south of the city.

For more information, contact:
Tel: 09 480 8109
Email: peter [dot] reiber [at] brightwater [dot] co [dot] nz
or Visit: www.brightwater-group.com