Frocester Engineering Feature Powervamp in Case Study.
Established in 2002, Frocester Engineering is an innovative engineering company specialising in tube bending, water jet cutting, welding and fabrication techniques to manufacture high quality products to meet customers’ exact requirements.
At their headquarters in Somerset, they employ a core team of engineers and qualified welders and have an established network of local and regional suppliers. The company also have an in house design capability which enables them to combine creativity with sound engineering solutions.
“The design engineers at Frocester very quickly understood the issues we faced…”
Frocester has worked alongside Powervamp on a number of projects, however it was the critically acclaimed Sidewinder cable carrier system that inspired them to create the following case study:
‘Powervamp is a world-recognised designer and manufacturer of specialist power equipment for the aviation, automotive and emergency lighting central battery sectors.
Frocester have been supplying Powervamp with various parts for many years. As a consequence of this successful relationship, Powervamp approached us to help in the design and manufacture of a new retractable cable carrier system for use at airports. The Sidewinder is used to transfer power from special 115volt 400Hz aircraft power converters located at every departure gate to each aircraft.
Aircraft power cabling and plugs are subjected to extremes of wear, impact damage and rough handling. As a result, power cables, AC plugs and their associated carrier systems are a constant source of problems at busy airports, with any failure potentially having an impact on safety, turn-around times and costs.
Our designers worked closely with Powervamp’s and came up with practical solutions to the issues being faced. We demonstrated our suggested solutions initially with computer generated models followed by rapidly produced prototypes for testing.
“Frocester’s speed in interpreting Powervamp’s requirements from CAD design, to prototype, to finished product astounded Heathrow management…”
The resulting product, called the Sidewinder, is being hailed as the ultimate fixed electrical ground power transfer system due to its deployment speed, strength and usability. It is now exclusively specified by London Heathrow Airport and is being installed progressively as stands are upgraded. It has already been ordered by Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh airports and is being trialled at other international airports in the UK.’
“The design engineers at Frocester very quickly understood the issues we faced. They developed excellent solutions to the design challenges .Their input was critical in creating a product which met the unique demands of continuous operations at Heathrow, where the required 100% uptime demanded extreme reliability. Frocester’s speed in interpreting Powervamp’s requirements from CAD design, to prototype, to finished product astounded Heathrow management and enabled us to win the business. With multiple units already installed, the build quality of the finished metalwork from Frocester is excellent and their service exceptional.”
Richard Roller,
Powervamp Chairman and Founder.
