Following an appraisal of the leading cable suppliers, top marks went to Draka, and the company’s cabling has been installed throughout the new JCB-sponsored Academy – Britain’s first academy designed to develop the engineers and business leaders of the future – that officially opened its doors in September to 540 budding engineers aged between 14 and 19.
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| JCB Academy |
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The Ł22 million Academy, situated adjacent to JCB’s headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire, is part housed in the Grade II listed Tutbury Mill, with a newly built annexe housing the main classrooms. Appropriately, Tutbury Mill was built by the Industrial Revolution entrepreneur, Richard Arkwright, who is widely credited with inventing the water frame. The renovation and new-build project itself has also scored top marks for its environmental credentials. It is a unique energy-self-sufficient place of learning, with power for the site being supplied by an Archimedes Screw fitted to the mill race, utilising water from the River Dove to turn the screw and power a generator. The project also boasts a biomass boiler, rainwater harvesting technology and photovoltaic cells to generate electrical power.
The cabling chosen for the electrical power supply was Draka’s Saffire®-brand 694-LSH Enhanced-category fire safety energy cable. This BS 6724:1997+A3:2008 [Electric cables. Thermosetting insulated, armoured cables for voltages of 600/1000 V and 1900/3300 V, having low emission of smoke and corrosive gases when affected by fire] compliant cable is used extensively for industrial wiring and mains distribution applications, where smoke and acid gas emission would pose a major hazard in the event of fire. It can be laid direct in the ground, be embedded in concrete, positioned in ducts, clipped to the surface, run in trays or in free air.
It is a steel wire armoured cable with OHLS® halogen-free sheathing that does not emit halogen gases and burns without producing large amounts of dense smoke. By comparison, under fire conditions, standard PVC cables used widely in the construction industry emit hydrogen chloride gas. This has a suffocating odour that is detectable in even very low concentrations. Burning PVC cables also generate hazardous volumes of debilitating or disorientating smoke that can easily increase the likelihood of panic and make safe evacuation – particularly from densely populated, educational buildings – much more difficult to achieve.
The electrical installation was designed and installed by Imtech G&H, one of the country’s leading electrical and mechanical engineering contractors based in Nottingham and Ossett, and the Draka cable was supplied by Edmundson Electrical’s Nottingham branch.
Commenting on the decision to install Draka’s Saffire cable, Imtech G&H’s project manager on the JCB Academy contract, Graham Collins, says: “JCB and the main contractor, Bowmer & Kirkland, set very high standards for the entire flagship project in terms of environmental performance, construction quality and safety. We were determined to play our part and choose a cable that met the highest fire safety standards and performance.” He continues: “The safer evacuation characteristics of Saffire OHLS cable, when compared with other cables on the market particularly impressed us, as did the cable’s independent third-party approval from BASEC, the British Approvals Service for Cables.”
More information on Draka and its cable offering can be found at www.draka.com. Draka UK is the country’s leading designer and manufacturer of fire performance cables, zero halogen power cables and building wires. The company is part of Netherlands-based Draka Holdings NV, which has over 9,000 employees worldwide. Further details are available by telephone on +44 (0) 1332 345431, by fax on +44 (0) 1332 331237, and via email at sales@draka.com.
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