New Sustaining Member – Equilibrant

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Equilibrant Ltd is a Belfast based independent Civil and Structural engineering consultancy established in 2009, and specialising in the detailed inspection, Non-Destructive Testing and repair & protection of reinforced concrete and steel infrastructure. The Managing Director, Dr Jim Cromie, is a Chartered Engineer and has a PhD in the electrochemical de-salination of reinforced concrete, and the Technical Director, Robert Devenney, is a Chartered Engineer with a wealth of experience in the inspection, testing and repair of all types of infrastructure.

They work with Asset Managers, consultants and contractors, producing comprehensive reports with recommendations for Life Cycle Management of civil infrastructure and can accurately identify the cause, extent and significance of structural/electrochemical deterioration using specialist Non-Destructive Testing techniques, and propose remedial works strategies, considering whole life costing, to ensure clients schedule sustainable remedial interventions. They have a full range of NDT equipment in-house including half-cell potential units/linear polarisation devices/concrete resistivity meters, Proceq live ground penetrating radar unit, Schmidt hammers etc.

All types of structural infrastructure and across engineering disciplines from railway and motorway bridges, other highway infrastructure, marine structures, high rise buildings etc. have been assessed. Typically the structures are suffering from Biogenic Sulphate Corrosion, concrete carbonation + low cover to reinforcement, chloride contamination, sulphate attack, acid attack, cracking etc. They also have the in-house expertise to model chloride diffusion and rate of carbonation penetration.

They are completely materials independent and produce factual reports or interpretive reports with repair material performance specification in accordance with EN 1504.
Equilibrant Ltd also offer a Part 3 HSE Surface Supplied Commercial diver, one of, if not the only practising chartered engineer dive inspection service in Ireland.

New Sustaining Member – Helvetica Technical Consulting

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Helvetica Technical Consulting’s vision is to safeguard the environment, the assets and the safety of people, and ensure a better and sustainable future. They deliver technical consulting to industries in terms of asset management, supply chain and quality control, from corrosion management to supplier qualification.

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” and, for this reason, all their services are performed by certified, trained and qualified operators using in-house tools and covered by a liability insurance.

Coating is a technique used to prevent corrosion that creates a physical barrier to stop or slow the deterioration process. Thus, it Is very important that the entire coating process is carried out following strict parameters and rules, since corrosion affects the life cycle and fitness for purposes of equipment, tools or even structures, like bridges or high voltage pylons. It has been estimated that 75% of premature coating failure is due to poor surface preparation.

With their extensive experience, they can perform inspections during initial qualification, taking care of all the aspects involved in the process, or even perform condition monitoring of the coating on existing equipment, vessel or a structure and then make decisions for re-coating.

Their experience covers a range of topics including, pipes and fittings, coating qualification process, thermal spray ,concrete, galvanic protection, personnel qualification, and coating assessment surveys. They can carry out DFT measurements, surface cleanliness (Bresle test, CSN, amine blush), blasted surface profile (Testex replica tape, surface comparators, digital profiler), adhesion testing, pinhole and porosity measurement, and environmental monitoring and recording.