Varlowe Industrial Services

Welding, Fabrication, CNC, Gas And Pipework Specialists

Projects

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Heating Plant Room

Project Description

Varlowe was approached by Briggs & Forrester to provide a comprehensive solution for installing a fully welded stainless steel gas main at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

With expertise in engineering, design, installation, and maintenance, Briggs & Forrester is a UK leader in building services engineering, prioritizing high quality and energy efficiency.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, located in the Edgbaston area near the University of Birmingham, is a major hospital with 1,215 beds and a cost of £545m to construct. Named after Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, it provides a wide range of services to local and regional populations, including liver, heart, and lung transplantation, cancer studies, and a specialist centre for military personnel. The hospital has the largest solid organ transplantation programme in Europe and the largest renal transplant programme in the UK. It also features the world’s largest single-floor critical care unit, with 100 beds.

The project involved fabricating and installing pipework ranging from 150mm to 300mm in diameter, integrating a solenoid and customised bracketry.

Varlowe’s highly skilled welding and pipework engineers fabricated the stainless steel pipework and bracketry at their workshop. They were then delivered to the site and handed over to the site team for installation. They also tested and purged the new gas main in compliance with IGEM/UP/2 standards to guarantee the quality of the installation.

The project was completed on time and within budget, exceeding the client’s expectations.

Varlowe is committed to delivering exceptional service and results for their clients, handling all aspects of the project with the utmost care and attention to detail, from the design and fabrication of the pipework to the installation and testing process.

Project Details

Project:

Heating Plant Room Installation

Services Required:

Pipe Fabrication, Gas Services, Coded Welding, Repair, Installation, Project Management

Customer:

Briggs And Forrester

NHS QE Hospital

Website:
https://briggsandforrester.co.uk/

https://www.uhb.nhs.uk/

Low Hill Community Centre

Project Description

A recent project we completed for Low Hill Community Centre and local artist Artfully Happy.

Low Hill Community Centre is a local and thriving community centre who provide a large selection of events and clubs, with private function hire available.

The community centre is a central hub for all the residents of Low Hill, The Scotland’s, and Bushbury. 

The aim is to keep the local community up to date with information, provide events, volunteer opportunities, help with employment, education, and much more.

The centre has a wide range of regular activities, which includes: –

  • Easy Line Gym facilities
  • Drama & Song Club
  • Evening bingo sessions
  • Local Credit Union
  • Support club for finding employment
  • Luncheon Club
  • Karate classes
  • Sons of Rest
  • Good Companionship Club

We were contacted by a highly talented local artist, Artfully Happy, with a project involving some metal silhouettes.

Once they had been fabricated, we fixed them to the fences of the community centre for Artfully to complete the artwork, which looks brilliant!

Project Details

Project:

Silhouette Fabrication

Services Required:

Metal Fabrication, Installation

Customer:

Low Hill Community Centre

Website:
https://lowhillhub.com/

TJM Projects – Replacement Boiler

Project Description

TJM Projects has been a specialist in interiors and construction services for over 15 years. Their family of skilled designers, crafts-people, project managers and quantity surveyors contribute to the delivery of projects.

They contacted Varlowe Industrial Services to provide a boiler replacement in the plant room of one of their clients’ buildings. The project was under tight time constraints, so we got to work after an initial site survey.

A new 125mm flow and return heating circuit was installed for the new boiler. We also installed a new section of 150mm and 65mm gas carcass.

Once our engineers completed the install of the new low loss header boiler, it was connected to the new pipework.

Also, as part of the scope, we installed new dirt strainers, air separators and a dosing pot which will prolong the life of the new boilers.

The new pipework was sat on bespoke bracketry, which was all fabricated by Varlowe. All pipework was welded in position by our Class 1 Coded engineers, then tested, purged and certified.

On completion, the system was filled, tested and commissioned.

Project Details

Project:

Boiler Replacement

Services Required:

Pipe Fabrication, Gas Services, Coded Welding, Repair, Installation, Project Management

Customer:

TJM Projects

Website:
https://www.tjmprojects.co.uk/

Polar Technology – New Gas Supply Phase 1

Project Description

Polar Technology required a new gas line installation to support a new oven at their Oxford-based workshop.

The management group delivers technology-based products around advanced composite materials, emerging metal processes and metallic fabrications through Lentus Composites and SST Technology.

They reached out to us to help them prepare for a new oven due to be installed. After a site meeting, we identified the need and came up with a solution.

After a detailed site measure, Phase one of the project was to supply, manufacture and install a new 4” stainless steel metric gas main.

The new main is installed at a high level, terminating with 3” blanked valved for further use. We then extended into the plant room and ended at a low level. The final part was then to connect to the burner on the new oven, complete with all isolating and test and purge points.

We prefabricated the required pipework in Varlowe’s workshop, ready for delivery to the site.

Once the prefabricated pipework was on-site, our site engineers started installing the new mains, following all site rules and regulations.

All work to be carried out by Gas Safe engineers to IGE/UP/1 edition 2 and class one coded welders.

On completion, all work was tested at 11/2x working pressure with bottled nitrogen and purged air to gas and certified.

Phase 2 of the project is due to start in the near future which will include a new high to low level gas run feeding the new purpose plant, all fabricated to customer requirements.

Project Details

Project:

New Gas Supply For Plant – Phase 1

Services Required:

Pipe Fabrication, Gas Services, Coded Welding, Repair, Installation, Project Management

Customer:

Polar Technology

Website:
https://polartechnology.co.uk

AF Blakemore Canopy Fabrication

Project Description

BJH contacted us to provide them with some new fabricated structures for AF Blakemore’s chiller building. A total of six new loading bay canopies to replace existing shelters that BJH has removed.

A.F. Blakemore & Son Ltd is one of the largest divisions of SPAR UK with a 1 billion pound turnover. They own 271 SPAR stores, serving more than 900 in total across England and Wales.

The company started in 1917 as a counter-service grocery store. They now employ 7000 people within their retail, wholesale distribution, food service and shopfitting divisions.

Blakemore’s chiller building, which provides cold foods for SPAR stores, required some new canopies for the loading bays. The old awnings are no longer fit for purpose as they had taken damage over the years from the multiple daily loading and unloading.

They required four standard canopies and two high loading canopies fabricating. We also needed to manufacture the framework for the new ambient canopy extensions.

Working from the drawings provided by GM Designs, our team of metal fabricators got to work on the five and six-meter tall structures.

After fabrication, they were delivered to the site for installation by ourselves and BJH.

Project Details

Project:

Steel Framework Fabrication

Services Required:

Steel Fabrication, Coded Welding, Installation, Project Management

Customer:

AF Blakemore

Website:

https://www.afblakemore.com

Signature Staircase Fabrication

Way back at the start of 2020, we brought a new unit to become our new headquarters.

It needed a complete renovation as the existing layout wasn’t fit for purpose. Click here to see the post about the renovation of the building.

We wanted an open plan reception area on the ground floor with open office space on the first floor. Where the current staircase was sat, it wouldn’t work with the proposed new layout.

So they had to go.

The staircase will be the primary architectural steel fabrication in the building and the first thing you’ll see when you walk in.

As a fabrication company, it was our chance to showcase what we could achieve.

Attention To Detail

We have years of experience designing, fabricating and installing staircases for different purposes. Yet, we knew it had to be different.

We believe that first impressions are everything.

Therefore, it demanded attention to the aesthetics to create an eye-catching feature, but they also need to be functional and safe.

We specialise in pipework fabrication, so we had an idea of the staircase incorporating pipework somehow.

The Final Design

After many sketches, brainstorms and prototypes, we finally had a design that we were happy with.

The stairs will feature an open design to showcase the pipework base. The steps and supporting brackets will be welded onto the pipe. These are then finished in black with a stainless steel finish on top of the step and railings. Frosted glass will finish it all off for a modern look.

With the completed design and Cad drawings in hand, it was over to our talented fabricators for manufacturing and installation.

After hours of hard work, they were in, tested, signed off and ready for use.

With the new staircase in, we couldn’t be happier. Our signature staircase for the new headquarters is in operation.