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Bristol based, Weir Strachan & Henshaw (Weir S&H) is a leading mechanical, electrical and control system design and project management company providing solutions for the nuclear and defence industries worldwide. The company has a complete capability from concept evaluation and definition, assessment, design, manufacture and site installation, through to in-service support.
The company has considerable experience in meeting the exacting demands of submarine, ship, aviation and weapons safety criteria. Weir S&H’s areas of expertise are substantial and include submarine weapon discharge and handling systems, major ship logistics and munitions handling systems, torpedo countermeasures systems, sonar towed array systems, aircraft lifts, helicopter landing grids and integrated waste management systems. Its expertise across all of these areas makes it a highly attractive option for customers.
The company boasts an unrivalled record of involvement in major submarine programmes, from the Trafalgar class submarines for the UK Royal Navy through to the current Spanish S-80 programme. Within this area of its business, Weir S&H provides project management, design, supply, assembly, test, installation and commissioning of a range of systems for new build programmes.
Utilising its naval expertise, Weir S&H has successfully developed its capabilities to the surface ship industry. Within this sector, the business offers unrivalled expertise in the field of Integrated Waste Management Systems (IWMS) and is continually bringing innovation to this area of the industry.
The aim of an IWMS is to treat the major waste streams arising on a typical vessel in compliance with all known current and future legislation on waste discharge, such as MARPOL. Following a successful demonstrator programme, Weir S&H has teamed up with QinetiQ to develop a revolutionary new system for the management of waste on marine platforms.
Traditional waste systems have been seen as separate, disparate items, each having their own suppliers and interface challenges.
In addition the separate waste streams have no commonality and are discharged or stored without thought for cross-connection to other systems, which would minimise waste streams and offer potential for reuse.
The latest proposition for IMO MARPOL 73/78 legislation (the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships) prohibits the discharge of untreated waste materials from ships within 12 miles of the shore, with even more stringent requirements for environmentally sensitive areas such as Alaska, the North Sea and the Mediterranean.
The IWMS addresses the collection, transfer, treatment, stowage and disembarkation of both fluid and solid waste streams. Crucial to the success of waste management is the unification of three main elements into a single intelligent system. Each of the oily water, black and grey water and solid waste and final treatment sub-systems are integrated by the addition of an overarching waste management system. The management system monitors system status and optimises the operation of each piece of equipment, ensuring maximum efficiency with varying waste generation requirements.
The system treats the numerous waste streams, separating the fluid and solid constituents and enabling transfer between sub-systems to ensure full treatment. The end result is three products; a clean permeate that can be safely discharged overboard or even reused as technical water, off-gas that is safe to vent to atmosphere and reduced solid waste in the form of ash that is automatically bagged for storage and disembarkation to shore.
After the success of the demonstrator, the IWMS Team, led by Weir S&H, was selected as Preferred Partner by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance to provide the Integrated Waste Management solution for the UK’s two new aircraft carriers. This major contract will see the carriers fitted with a state-of-the-art IWMS to satisfy an extremely challenging set of requirements.
The Weir S&H IWMS offers a flexible solution for any mission length and waste generation requirements. By employing an independent approach to system design it ensures choice of the best value solution. The team’s extensive analytical capability allows it to optimise the system through discreet event simulation, while modularisation ensures minimised cost and installation time to suit even the most demanding of build programmes. In addition, Weir S&H actively investigates potential new technologies, both through in-house research and development and collaboration with QinetiQ. By keeping one step ahead, the company ensures that systems are the best value solution for customers and wherever possible, adaptable for future retrofit.
In addition to marine platforms, the IWMS has many potential land based applications, such as remote/temporary bases, field hospitals and emergency relief shelters, where efficient management of waste can save lives.
Weir S&H is continually looking at ways to expand its vast portfolio of services and provided further evidence of this earlier this year when it announced the formation of its Consultancy Business Unit. As a result of many years of involvement in a wide range of studies and analysis, Weir S&H has gained considerable experience in the areas of concept design, numerical analysis and systems engineering. This capability has supported internal project teams for a number of years and is now offered, as a natural progression, externally.
The company’s consultancy business focuses on requirements capture, concept generation, design assurance, specialist analysis and proof-of-concept demonstrator builds to provide high-integrity solutions.
Weir S&H offers fully independent and impartial advice in support of early customer assessment activities. By working with clients from the project outset, the consultancy team ensures robust evaluation of both engineering and capability requirements. Concept design, development and prototyping for projects is second nature, with teams employing advanced software modeling across a wide range of equipment systems and technologies.
Weir S&H is a member of The Weir Group plc, a UK-listed engineering company founded in 1871 and listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1947. The Weir Group has a proud heritage of engineering excellence demonstrated in closely aligned, independently successful companies and strong products. Today, Weir employs over 8000 people worldwide across operations grouped into five divisions, united by a common purpose and sharing know-how to deliver added value to its customers.
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