Case Study – Derwentside College

05-09-2022

Derwentside College is located just outside Durham in a town called Consett. The college is in the top 5% nationally for providing vocational education. They provide high quality education and training that focuses on developing the knowledge and skills needed by their students to progress into employment.

During a period of remote learning Derwentside have invested in the construction skills unit, which will increase the capacity and usable space for their engineering and construction courses. Sine Consulting were appointed to carry out the electrical services design for the unit. They are an award-winning engineering and design consultancy focussed on sustainability and innovation in engineering design. A perfect match for our team who are enjoying their 60th year of UK based manufacturing. We are proud to offer our unique blend of skills as manufacturers, designers, and consultants providing standard or completely custom-made power distribution units to suit our customer’s needs.

Sine Consulting turned to us here at Olson to provide a solution to their overhead power distribution requirements. Working closely with our experienced office-based sales team, they were introduced to our innovative retractable suspended power sockets available as standard or in a range of different configurations and supplied with either a fixed chain or our retractable solution. Sine Consulting specified a 2-way unit with 16 A BS 4343 socket outlets, complete with our orange sprung cable rated at 2.5 mm. This was provided as input power to the unit and would be run alongside the retractor. The input power lead is supplied in an orange colour to provide immediate identification, to help prevent any accidents and be visible to the students.

During the installation, the Contractors used the bolt provided with the retractor, preventing the unit from holding its position. This option was introduced to the retractor in 2020 and will make sure the unit is always at its maximum height and out of the way. As this was not the requirement of the customer, they called Olson’s customer service team and provided pictures to sales@olson.co.uk. The issue was resolved in a fast and efficient manner.

The retractable suspended power sockets were suspended from a higher-than-average ceiling. Therefore, we offered extensions for the retractor system for the units to be at a suitable height and within reach. The units can now be lowered by the user to their required working height and then retracted back when not in use.