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As Christmas draws nearer, Santa’s workshop is a hive of activity, with each elf diligently crafting, wrapping, and sorting presents to ensure everything is ready for the big night. Behind the scenes, the elves play a crucial role in bringing the holiday magic to life, but in a workshop as bustling as the one at the North Pole, there’s no room for complacency. Health and safety are just as important as holiday cheer. With the workshop so full of activity - sharp tools, heavy packages, moving parts, and even flying reindeer - it’s clear that maintaining a safe environment is critical to keeping spirits high and accidents low. But, in a building as iconic as Santa’s workshop, how do you balance tradition with the need for up-to-date protocols? Let’s take a closer look at how the North Pole can embrace modern health and safety practices through innovative engineering design to maintain both efficiency and the joy that defines Christmas…

Engineering design projects, especially in chemical plants, often involve multiple teams and many moving parts. In such complex environments, ensuring everyone is aligned is critical. When miscommunication occurs, it’s often due to one culprit: inaccurate or mismatched drawings. From high-level layouts to detailed system schematics, each type of drawing plays a unique and vital role. In this month's blog, we explore ‘The different types of engineering design drawings and what they’re used for…’

When designing pipework systems that transport hazardous chemicals under high pressure and varying temperatures, safety, efficiency, and cost control are non-negotiables. Mistakes in this critical phase can lead to costly rework, operational inefficiencies, or even dangerous safety incidents. Traditionally, piping design relied on 2D drawings and manual calculations, but as systems become more complex, so does the need for more advanced tools like 3D modelling, flow simulations, and interactive layouts. These tools allow engineers to create detailed, accurate representations of entire pipework systems, anticipating risks, streamlining installation, and ensuring the system operates correctly from day one. So, with so many design tools at our disposal, why use visualisations in piping design for chemical plants? And how can they help optimise safety, efficiency, and cost?

Chemical plants are complex industrial facilities that rely heavily on piping infrastructure to transport often hazardous materials around the site. Over time though, this infrastructure can deteriorate due to factors like age, corrosion, and general wear and tear. Let's say this pipework is carrying something like water. If it were to fail, you not only risk flooding the site but also shutting down production until the internal problem has been resolved. Now, if you replace that with one of the more dangerous chemicals found in chemical plants, this deterioration poses significant safety and environmental risks. To mitigate these risks, it’s important to assess the condition of ageing piping systems and implement effective mitigation measures. In this month's blog, we’re exploring a proactive approach to pipe integrity in chemical plants.

Engineering expertise is vast and varied, making it challenging to determine the right specialist for a complex project. From software to structures, there's an engineer for almost every task. But when it comes to project managing large-scale installations like carbon capture equipment, you've likely asked yourself “Do I need a Mechanical Engineer or a Design Engineer?”

The UK's ambitious 2050 net-zero goals rely heavily on the chemical industry. While the industry faces challenges, exciting advancements are underway! In this month's blog, we’re exploring the role 3D laser scanning and mechanical design are playing in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) implementation.

It's a common misconception that 3D scan data is only valuable during the design phase of a chemical plant piping project. While it undoubtedly provides a great deal of insight at this stage, the efficiency and precision of 3D laser scanning offer a valuable asset throughout the entire project lifecycle – from feasibility studies to construction, quality control, and maintenance to ongoing team training. So, just how can 3D laser scanning be used in all phases of chemical plant piping design and construction?

While 3D laser scanning captures this complex maze of pipes, vessels and ever-shifting machinery in incredible detail, it's not until that data has been processed that it becomes actually useful in a business. This seemingly simple task unlocks the full potential of your laser scan data, transforming it from a point cloud into an actionable 3D model. So what is scan registration? How does automated scan registration work? And what role is it playing in the time-quality-cost trade off a lot of design engineers encounter on a daily basis? Find out in our latest blog ‘What role can automated scan data registration play in the time-quality-cost trade-off?’

‘Don't put all your eggs in one basket’ It's a simple reminder to diversify and avoid relying on a single source for something important. But when it comes to designing complex piping systems in chemical plants, how can you avoid putting all your eggs in one basket, so you have a safety net that ensures smooth operations even if a component fails? We explore this idea in our latest blog ‘Using Redundancy In Engineering Design To Avoid Cracking Under Pressure’