This month’s issue shows exactly how progressive m&e contractors are leading the way with modern methods of construction. Modular techniques, least parts engineering and offsite manufacturing are all helping contractors offer their clients installation solutions that can be completed more quickly, safely and often more cheaply than conventional approaches.

PIP Electrics, for example, has fitted out in excess of three million square feet of office space in the last nine years, much of it in Canary Wharf for demanding clients such as Lehman Brothers, Barclays and Morgan Stanley.

PIP minimises the points of potential failure and uses products where any terminations are made and tested off site. The firm has looked at every part of an electrical installation and attempted to engineer out the labour intensive activities to make an installation as modular as possible. Reliability is better, installation times quicker and estimating more exact. PIP uses products such as Electrak’s underfloor power track and desk modules, and busbar in the ceiling voids, to achieve its aims.

MK’s Flexible Wiring System is another product that is helping contractors offer benefits to their clients. Its use at Osborne’s eco house allows the wiring leads to be plugged directly into the rear of the unit – no tools are required and the special connector guarantees polarity and continuity.

M&E contracting is changing. Firms have to accept that some of the wiring previously installed by electricians will now be done by suppliers in the factory. At the end of the day, it is the client that benefits and they will choose the new breed of contractors that embrace these techniques.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor

Postscript

Andrew Brister, Editor