Graypen
Graypen, formed in 1969, have gone from strength to strength and now stand as the UK’s leading independent tanker port agent, offering a broad and diverse range of ship brokering services.
With offices strategically sited to cover all tanker ports around the whole UK coastline, and an overseas presence in Amsterdam, Belgium & Rotterdam.
Graypen’s Immingham head office is situated just a few miles from Torr Engineering’s head office, and we were delighted to be commissioned to complete their twin floor air conditioning project.
‘The Bridge’, as the head office is aptly named, is one of Immingham’s most eye catching and architecturally pleasing buildings.
Built in 2012 by Lindum Group, with design by Hodson Architects, the building offers wonderfully light and airy open spaces, with a vast expanse of glass frontage.
Buildings with large glass facades are particularly prone to heating up in the sun. The reason for this is that glass is a poor insulator, which means that heat from the sun can easily pass through the glass and into the building.
Additionally, the sun’s rays can be amplified by the glass, creating a greenhouse effect within the building. This can lead to uncomfortable temperatures inside the building, and the need for correctly sized air conditioning systems to ensure a pleasant working environment for the staff.
Torr Engineering’s design to overcome this significant solar gain heating in the large first floor open plan office was a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries VRF system, supplying 5 x 14kW indoor ceiling cassettes, mounted centrally & equidistantly throughout the office. This configuration is capable of providing 70kW of cooling energy in summer, and 80kW of heating energy on those chilly winter days.
But before any works started inside, we took delivery of a 20′ shipping container, to house all the new equipment, materials and our installation tools.
Once our storage facility was in place and loaded up with equipment, the new outdoor condensing units could be sited on their Big Foot frame base.
And with everything in place, it can now be piped up.
With the exterior pipe work complete, it’s time to move inside and connect to the ceiling cassette evaporator units.
And while Torr Director Garry gives the progress a good coat of looking at…
Torr Technician Dave ensures the bracket work is not just solid, but also perfectly square.
Progress at Graypen moves swiftly, and the indoor units, their supports and containment tray work are all soon in place – ready for pipe work, electrical connections & drainage.
We love the design of this superb Graypen office building, and the open, industrial style installation of these air conditioning cassettes, where everything is visible, looks fabulous in this office.
In addition to this first floor open plan office installation we also installed several ceiling cassettes to the ground floor office areas, which unlike the industrial ‘see all’ installation above, were neatly hidden away above the ceiling grid – with just the fascias visible in the ceiling once completed.
After all systems have been installed it’s time to start testing.
All individual systems are tested at very high pressure to ensure the pipe work is both burst proof & leak proof.
Under normal conditions systems like these could run at a pressure as high as 30 bar (435 psi).
That’s 10 x the pressure in your car tyre! Because of these high pressures it is essential that the completed refrigerant pipe work is tested for strength. This is done by pressuring the system well in excess of it’s normal running pressures to over 45 bar (652 psi) to ensure it is safe and leak tight.
And with the pressure testing satisfactorily completed, we run up and commission all the systems under the watchful of eye of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries commissioning expert – Neil Hunton.
A superb installation, to which we owe a lot of thanks to the staff of Graypen Immingham, who were extremely helpful and understanding as we worked among them during their daily duties running one of the UK’s leading shipping agents.
A special mention and a debt of gratitude is owed to Alison, who contracted Torr in the first place, and facilitated our works with a military style efficiency – and a smile – and occasionally a cup of tea. Thank you!
If it’s refrigeration or air conditioning you need, you’re already on the right website.
If it’s shipping you need, I couldn’t recommend a friendlier, more efficient team than that of Graypen!
