August 2021 newsletter
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Hot dip galvanized by Joseph Ash Chesterfield
In 1854, a ‘Dinosaur Court’ opened on an island at Crystal Palace Park. The attraction consisted of 30 plus life-size dinosaurs, sculpted by acclaimed sculptor and natural history artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. Described as the “birthplace of ‘Dinomania’”, the ‘Dinosaur Court has been “a symbol of British influence” ever since.
The Grade I Historic Site has been available to the public for nearly 170 years, and it needs regular care and attention with conservation monitoring, repair of the sculptures and grounds maintenance. Volunteers help, however access to the dinosaurs became challenging in 2017 when the footbridge leading to the island was removed. Something had to be done! Enter the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, who successfully raised money through crowdfunding to reinstate a bridge. Not the same bridge as before. Instead, a new fit-for-purpose pedestrian bridge in a new location.
The structural designer for the bridge was Arup, and the architect was Tonkin Lui. Joseph Ash Chesterfield provided the steel protection. The main contractor, design collaborator and steel fabricator was Cake Industries.
Cake Industries – the bridge fabricators
Cake Industries is a design and fabrication firm that produces beautiful objects, from sculpture and staircases to bridges and small buildings. They take an idea or a set of drawings and turn it into reality, carrying out the full design (including structural engineering) and assembling the elements.
Cake Industries built the bridge in their South London workshop. Starting with precise laser-cut pieces, a female mould was used to assemble the triangular spine beam. Laser-cut combs were heated locally and bent by hand so that the shape of the deck was gradually revealed. The deck pieces were welded to the central beam before a handrail and deck mesh was attached.
The entire structure was then galvanized in one dip at Joseph Ash Chesterfield to provide a protective and decorative coating.
Bridge installation
The new bridge was installed at Crystal Palace Park in January 2021. To protect this batch of dinosaurs from extinction, it was designed on a pivot to open or close to control traffic to the island prevent unauthorised access to the site.
Watch this short film by Cake Industries to see a timelapse of the bridge fabrication, through to hot dip galvanizing and installation. You can also see how it opens and closes.
Known affectionately as the ‘Dinosaur Bridge’, it has been an acclaimed success due to its functionality and beauty. It has also been shortlisted for the Institute of Structural Engineers 2021 Award for Pedestrian Bridges. (Good luck Cake Industries!)
A long-time partnership
Joseph Ash Galvanizing has worked on several projects for Cake Industries and each one is interesting, challenging, and exciting. (Read about some recent projects: The Living Room and The Hothouse.) A bit like the Crystal Palace dinosaurs, our company also started life in the 1850’s, so we were delighted to assist with this project!
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If you’d like to see the ‘Dinosaur Court’ and the Dinosaur Bridge, visit the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs website. For more pictures of the bridge visit Cake Industries and The Trianglese blog.
(Photos by James Balston)
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We’re celebrating after landing the internationally-recognised RoSPA Award for the eighth year in a row!
Joseph Ash Galvanizing has received a RoSPA Gold Health and Safety Award for working hard to ensure our staff, customers, clients, and contractors get home safely to their families at the end of every working day.
Organisations receiving a RoSPA Award are recognised as being world-leaders in health and safety practice. Every year, nearly 2,000 entrants vie to achieve the highest possible accolade in what is the UK’s longest-running H&S industry awards.
Mick Jackson from Joseph Ash Galvanizing said: “It’s great that we have won the RoSPA Gold Award. This is the eighth consecutive year we have been recognised for our excellent health and safety standards, performance and systems, and it gives us immense pride.”
Julia Small, RoSPA’s achievements director, said: “The RoSPA Awards scheme is the longest-running of its kind in the UK, but it receives entries from organisations across the globe, making it one of the most sought-after achievement awards for health and safety worldwide.
“RoSPA is very proud of the achievements of its entrants, and with this award we recognise the best of the best, those organisations that have gone the extra mile, raising the bar for the delivery of safety in the workplace. Employees, wherever they may be, should be able to go to work safe in the knowledge that they will return home unharmed and healthy at the end of every day. Our RoSPA Award winners are central to achieving this goal. By entering they are driving up standards and setting new safety benchmarks for organisations across the world. Currently, around 7million people are directly impacted by the RoSPA Awards, but the scheme’s global influence is even wider – with nearly 2000 organisations from 46 countries represented this year. I would also particularly want to thank our main sponsor NEBOSH, the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health – for their continued support for the 16th consecutive year.”
For more information about the RoSPA Awards visit www.rospa.com/awards
A beautiful structure with a stark warning – fabricated by Cake Industries and hot dip galvanized by Joseph Ash Galvanizing.
In the Summer of 2020, a large-scale installation called ‘The Hothouse’ was erected at Stratford. As a landmark feature for London Design Week, it was intended as a stunning showcase for the public to look at, experience and enjoy, as well as a reminder and celebration of the rich East London history of the 1930s when there were 1,300 acres of greenhouses positioned along the Lee Valley corridor, growing ornamental plants, flowers, and fruits.
Additionally, however, The Hothouse was also designed to deliver a serious message about the world’s rapidly changing climate. A climate that has already increased by 1°C temperature since pre-industrialisation, which could have catastrophic consequences if it reaches 2°C.
Over the last year, orange, guava, gourd, pomegranate, chia seed, lemon, mango, sugarcane, loquat, and pineapple have all been grown under controlled conditions inside The Hothouse. While it’s interesting to see how these species grow, it’s a stark warning that should the planet continue to heat up, by 2050 the UK climate will be warm enough to produce these tropical plants outside.
The project
The Hothouse is at the International Quarter London, a business development built in Stratford and close to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The architect for the project was Studio Weave, whom Lendlease commissioned. Studio Weave worked with horticultural designer Tom Massey and planting team Hortus Loci to fill and landscape The Hothouse.
At seven metres tall, the design was inspired by Victorian glasshouses and is held up by galvanized steel CHS sections (rolled to create the form), and cables.
Cake Industries was chosen as the main contractor, fabricator, and detailed structural designer of this project. With a reputation for working with the finest materials, bringing concepts to life, and taking a design-focused approach to all projects, Cake Industries was also chosen as the fabricator for The Living Room project, installed at Stratford in 2020.
As a long-standing supplier to Cake Industries, Joseph Ash Galvanizing was chosen to manage the hot dip galvanizing process for the steel CHS sections.
Hot dip galvanizing is imperative for steel-based projects because it provides a long-life, low-maintenance corrosion protection which safeguards steel from atmospheric attacks that cause rust.
Hot dip galvanizing is also an apt coating for this project because it is environmentally friendly. It fits perfectly into a circular economy, optimising the durability of steel (enabling it to be used again), facilitating the ease of reuse, and it can be recycled. (Read more about this here.)
Additional suppliers included:
JJ Carter (fabric roof), Artura Engineering (tensile fabric design), Amorim, and JMR (section benders).
If you’d like to visit, The Hothouse will remain at Stratford until September 2021.
Photography by Ed Reeve.
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It’s always good to get a different perspective, and that’s just what happened when we were presented with some drone photos of our plant at Bilston. The photos were provided by Iain Smith from Berry Systems (one of our Hill & Smith sister companies).
- The team at Bilston are very proud of their plant, including how neat, tidy and organised it looks! Here’s some other reasons why they are proud:
- The Bilston plant has the deepest bath in the country. Dipping to 3.6m the team can vertically accommodate a lot of work which may be sloped or a double dipped elsewhere.
- Bilston is one of the few plants in the UK with a semi automated system, allowing technology to pickle your work. This means turnaround times are super quick.
- Bilston has an enclosed acid house. This means that the emissions from the chemical cleaning process are captured, cleaned and then released to the atmosphere as clean air.
- The plant is categorised as low risk by the Local Authority, making the plant the UK’s most environmentally friendly Galvanizer.
(Photos courtesy of Iain Smith at Berry Systems.)
Patrick Fromant has joined our Corby plant as the new Commercial Manager, responsible for the commercial activity and the sales team.
No stranger to the construction industry, Patrick brings with him a wealth of experience as a Graduate Trainee Manager, a District Sales Manager and Territory Sales Manager at Hanson UK, where he was responsible for several different concrete plants.
Patrick is driven, strategic, analytical, solution-focused, and customer-centric.
When asked why he joined the Joseph Ash Group, he said “After meeting the leadership team, it felt like a fantastic opportunity to join a great business with forward-thinking management. I am keen to utilise and develop my skillset to bring commercial success to the Group.”
In his spare time, Patrick is a regular gym goer and a food fanatic.
Please join us in welcoming Patrick to the Joseph Ash Group.
Great to have you with us Patrick!
You can reach Patrick on 01536 409818 or at patrickf@premiergalv.co.uk.
In 2020 a new structure was erected at the busy new commercial office district of Stratford’s International Quarter London. The design – known as The Living Room – was commissioned by Lendlease to create a multi-use, free co-working space for the workers and broader communities of Stratford. It was fabricated by one of our valued clients – Cake Industries – and hot dip galvanized by Joseph Ash Galvanizing.
The ethos behind the new International Quarter at Stratford, is encouraging people to work where they feel most inspired, and The Living Room certainly lives up to this goal. Designed by YOU&ME Architects with Cooke Fawcett Architects, it allows nearby office workers and the public to comfortably work outside, for fresh air and a change of scenery. Equipped with power sockets, lighting and WiFi, it can be used by up to 30 people.
The structure looks like a house on its side, forming a sheltered pitched canopy – should the weather prove inclement – with tiered seating.
It is made from hot dip galvanized steel and clad in glue-laminated larch timber.
Powder-coated aluminium shingles cover the exterior in a bright and colourful pattern of pinks and greens, which creates a sculptural shelter from every viewpoint. The fixed furniture made from bespoke, hot dip galvanized and powder-coated steel continues this vibrant theme. There’s also a 7m long communal table and durable hardwood seating.
A project to be proud of
Cake Industries were chosen as the fabricators of this project because they have a reputation for bringing concepts to life, working with the finest materials, and taking a design-focused approach to all projects, from sculptures to staircases, cabinetry to pavilions.
As a long-standing supplier to Cake Industries, Joseph Ash Galvanizing was chosen to manage the hot dip galvanizing process, and the vibrant powder coating.
Hot dip galvanizing is imperative for a project such as The Living Room because it provides a long-life, low-maintenance corrosion protection which safeguards the steel from atmospheric attack, which causes rust. Powder coating also provides a robust, colourful layer to architectural steel.
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To book The Living Room, visit IQL.
Photos by Peter Landers.
Read our May 2021 newsletter from Joseph Ash Galvanizing – hot off the press today!
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