ACR Journal

NEWS 04 August | September 2021 Volume 7 No.5 Award winner Kevin’s voyage of discovery The IOR has awarded Kevin Gregory the RACHP Engineering Technician Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by ACR Journal, to recognise a career of “commitment, discipline and passion” spanning 40 years. Kevin described how working in refrigeration has provided him with a career that has been filled with enjoyment and how it was only by chance that he sailed into the industry in the first place. “As a young man, I was in the Royal Navy and posted on HMS Nottingham, docked just off Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. Early one morning, I was on watch and at about 2am I noticed that the oil sight glass on the ship’s chiller was low. Armed with a typical Royal Navy well-organised chiller servicing procedure manual, I proceeded with my investigation. The manual advised that ‘if the oil is low, then top up to a full sight glass’. I found the bottle marked OM100, removed the chiller’s oil cap, and proceeded to fill it up. The hissing that occurred when I removed the oil cap was obviously caused by the noise of the compressors! “Satisfied with my repair, I slept well after my watch but was then abruptly woken four hours after with my senior officer ‘politely’ asking what I had done. It turns out that I had managed to overfill the oil and released most of the system’s refrigerant in the process, pulling air into the system. After the Navy restocked the three months’ provisions of 245 men that I had ruined, they decided to send me on a refrigeration course - after which I became a subject matter expert! “It’s from then that my passion grew and has remained with me throughout my career. After the Navy and then a spell at LEC, I settled at Kinlochs and Son in 2009, where I currently have responsibilities for all of the engineering team as a senior project manager. I have always had someone to pass on my knowledge to throughout my career, whether that being an apprentice working in the field or a contact manager learning about the industry.’’ Kevin’s passion for refrigeration has also passed to his three sons, all of whom work for Kinlochs and Son. Nausheen Basha, of City, University London, was presented with the Ted Perry Award for Student Research for her work on the Development of Screw Compressor by Improving Oil Injection System. Three researchers from different UK universities took part in a live 3-minute event, presenting their work to IOR members as part of the IOR Cool Careers World Refrigeration Day webinar. The judges – themselves all past winners of the Ted Perry Award – selected Nausheen following a review of the summary of her thesis, supervisors statement and the live presentation. Nasheen said she was excited and thrilled to win the award. She added: “Refrigeration is a career which is exciting and enjoyable where you can push your boundaries. We are in challenging times, we want to get towards net zero so we need creative solutions and diverse workforces.’’ STAR TO LAUNCH NEW APP AT SHOW Star Refrigeration will launch a free energy consumption calculation tool at the 40th TCS&D Show in Peterborough in September. The UK’s only dedicated cold chain conference is taking place at the East of England Arena on September 7-8 and Star will be exhibiting at stand C20. Its refrigeration engineering experts will be able to advise of how to reduce energy consumption, cut greenhouse gas emissions and showcase its range of CO2 and ammonia chillers and freezers. Star will also be launching a free app, the Specific Energy Consumption Calculator (SEC). Dr Rob Lamb, group sales and marketing director of Star Refrigeration, said: “The app was developed to include the latest research on energy performance ‘Best Practice’ for cold and chill stores by our group managing director, Dr Andy Pearson. Due to the volume of enquiries, we have developed a specific app to allow cold chain businesses see the data for themselves, by comparing and benchmarking their energy consumption to industry standards”. The TCS&D Show is also host to a line-up of industry speakers in its conference programme, including representatives from Star. Presentations will demonstrate how a focus on hardware performance, proactive aftercare and software analysis can reduce refrigeration related environmental impact and help businesses exceed their Climate Change Agreement (CCA) targets. https://www.tcsdshow.com/ Hanwell becomes Ellab Wireless environmental monitoring manufacturer Hanwell Solutions is changing its name to reflect the integration with Danish parent company Ellab, which acquired the business in 2019. The Hertfordshire-based business will be known as Ellab Monitoring Solutions, although the Hanwell product name is retained as a brand within the environmental monitoring markets serving the pharmaceutical, healthcare, heritage, food, and general industrial sectors. Managing director Ian Robinson said: “To align with Ellab’s strategies and provide coherent branding, the company name has been officially changed with immediate effect. The Hanwell brand stands for quality, integrity, innovation and high levels of customer service and will continue to be used on all of our existing environmental monitoring products.” Kevin Gregory of Kinlochs & Son Nausheen Basha