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Case StudiesMarch 15, 2021January 6, 2023

Harry Potter

AF Switchgear supplied multiple switchboards, panel boards and distribution equipment for the official ‘Warner Bros. Studio Tour, London – The Making of Harry Potter’, which is based at Warner Bros Studios, London.

To honour the best-selling book and film series (the biggest grossing film series of all time), a new attraction was built at the former Leavesden Film Studios. It was acquired by the Warner Brothers in 2010, who invested £110,000,000 to give the plot a complete refurbishment.

The former 1940’s aerodrome, which is spread over a 200-acre site, offers flexible filming space in addition to the experience. The facility allows the public to go ‘behind the scenes’ and showcases a huge array of sets and props from the film series amounting to over ten-years’-worth of Harry Potter memorabilia.

The experience reveals some of the closely guarded secrets, special effects and breath-taking animatronics that made Harry Potter the global phenomenon it is today. The attraction, which was opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2013, regularly attracts over 40,000 weekly visitors.

The LV switchgear manufactured by AF Switchgear enabled power throughout the studio.

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Case StudiesMarch 15, 2021January 6, 2023

London Olympics

AF Switchgear were selected to supply the LV switchboards to power the communications hub known as the Data Hotel, to facilitate essential communications for the 2012 London Olympics.

This communications hub provided mobile phone SMS and MMS services for all major mobile phone companies such as O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, EE and many more during the Olympics.

Situated at the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London the Data Hotel was a temporary building equipped with the latest mobile phone communication server technology. The facility had the capability to supply coverage to over four billion mobile phones, of which many users subscribed to the Olympics event via mobile phone applications.

The apps provided real time information featuring the latest schedules for each event, results, news, gossip, photos and video clips of all the medal ceremonies, crucial victories, world records plus any other related information so sports fans from around the globe could enjoy the full London 2012 Olympics experience.

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Case StudiesMarch 15, 2021January 4, 2023

The Emirates Air Line

Installing a Leading LV Switchgear System for Emirates

AF Switchgear were selected to supply the LV switchgear package for the Emirates Airline cable car project in London.

LV Switchgear is low-voltage switchgear that is designed to safely and efficiently distribute electrical power.

Sponsored by Emirates Airlines and built by Doppelmayr, the entire cable car system and Gondola stations were built at a cost of approx. £60,000,000.

The cable car link, connecting the Royal Docks to the East and Greenwich to the West, was built within a tight timescale to ensure it was ready for the London 2012 Olympics.

Travelling over 1 Kilometre, the Gondola’s pass over the River Thames at a height of 30 metres.

At full capacity, the Emirates Air Line was designed to carry up to 2,500 people per hour or 260,000 people per week to suit the demand at peak times.

More than 13 million journeys have been made on the Emirates Air Line since its opening.

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Case StudiesMarch 15, 2021January 6, 2023

KAO Data

Supplying an Industry-Leading Switchgear Solution

AF Switchgear was appointed to supply KAO Data with high-quality switchgear built to the latest IEC 61439-2 standards. It needed to meet the demands of the modern data centre as well as the client’s concurrent maintainability requirements, critical for the uptime.

KAO Data, situated in KAO Park, Harlow, Essex, is a site of historical significance witnessing one of the most important technological breakthroughs of the post-war era – the invention of the Fibre Optic Cable. The discovery in 1966 was so significant that Sir Charles Kao (affectionately known as the Father of Fibre Optics) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2009.

Work began in 2017 on the £200m, 35-acre campus replacing existing laboratories owned by Northern Telecom with immediate upgrade of the site substation increasing power capacity to 43.5MVA feeding four freestanding data centre buildings.

Standardisation of design & delivery were an important factor to consider with repeatable design and standardisation required across the facility. In addition, visual coding was used in the way of clear and bold colours applied to power equipment to assist circuit identification within the A, B & C distributed redundant power scheme.

Phase 1 In 2017, AF Switchgear supplied 2 x 2000kVA Package Substations, 1 x 1600kVA Package Substation, 3 x UPS Output Switchboards, 2 x Landlords Switchboard plus 2 x Landlords UPS Switchboards.

Phase 2 In 2019, there was a significant design change. The three package Substations remained the same, but changes were made to the UPS Input/Output board designs, integrating them. This not only saved space within the switch rooms themselves but provided additional IT technical space to complement the existing Data Halls for the client.

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Case StudiesMarch 15, 2021January 6, 2023

Strathclyde University

AF Switchgear secured the order to supply a range of LV Switchgear for The University of Strathclyde Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow.

The project outline was to supply and install six primary LV Switchboards, working closely with the appointed consulting engineers throughout the designing process to ensure it would meet customer requirements.

This was considered a flagship project for the University in conjunction with its many industrial partners, who work side-by-side in a state-of-the-art building in the heart of Glasgow.

Key stakeholders research solutions to challenges in sectors central to economic regeneration in Scotland and further afield, including power, energy, photonics, sensors, advanced engineering, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and bio-nano systems.

The Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) is based at the heart of the city and is the cornerstone of Scottish Enterprise’s new International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone (ITREZ), a global economic hub to bring innovative businesses to Glasgow to sit alongside the University.

AF Switchgear are manufacturers of Switchgear, Power Distribution Units (PDUs), Substations, Panel Boards, and other equipment to help efficiently and safely distribute power.

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Case StudiesMarch 15, 2021January 6, 2023

Red Bull Racing

AF Switchgear have completed two projects for Red Bull Racing at their Factory HQ in Milton Keynes.

The first project was to provide a much-needed power upgrade to Building 3, occupied by Red Bull Technology. This division supports a range of Red Bull associated sports including stunt flying, motocross, stunt bikes, BMX and diving and was also the major sponsor and driving force behind Felix Baumgartner’s historic freefall from the edge of space in 2012.

For this project, AF Switchgear supplied an outdoor containerised package substation, consisting of an 11kV Transformer, Ring Main Unit, LV switchgear package, and a weather-proof outdoor GRP housing.

AF Switchgear was then asked to supply Power Distribution Units for Building 2, which is entirely occupied by the racing car construction division of Red Bull’s Formula 1 team, employing over 600 people.

For this project, AF Switchgear supplied bespoke manufactured LV power distribution equipment all designed to customer requirements. AF Switchgear also provided a power upgrade to the Gearbox and Pneumatics areas.

Internal NewsMarch 4, 2021April 19, 2021

Techincal Director Mike Harris Retires

After 23 years of loyal service at AF Switchgear, our Mike Harris retired his role yesterday on the 31st March as Technical Director.

He started his Engineering Career in the West Country (Cornwall to be precise!) well over 50 years ago before moving onto senior roles at Applied Energy and Brentford Electric.

Mike’s achievements over the years have had an immense impact on our company and through ingenuity and passion, completely changed the way we build and operate today.

It is no exaggeration to say, the whole team has benefited from Mike’s experience and technical guidance over the last 23 years, and for that, we owe him a debt of gratitude.

Fortunately, though we are not having to say goodbye quite yet!

Mike will be working for AF Switchgear in a part-time consultancy role from next month, assisting in product development and technical assistance.

So from all the staff at AF Switchgear, we wish you well Mike and we look forward to working with you on the other side!

Internal NewsJuly 1, 2020September 6, 2022

Achilles BuildingConfidence Advanced

AF Switchgear Is Now a Validated Achilles BuildingConfidence Advanced Member

In addition to our Achilles TransQ Global accreditation for the Transport sector, AF Switchgear can now proudly announce that the company is now also a validated Achilles BuildingConfidence Advanced Member for the Construction sector.

Achilles is a Supply Chain Management system which collects and validates supplier data to mitigate risk. Achilles use a registration process, risk models, comprehensive pre-qualification questionnaires and (for advanced members) a two day audit, to create a platform where buyers can find qualified partners and suppliers who can prove their credentials.

Achilles work across 10 sectors and more than 20 countries.

What is the Achilles BuildingConfidence Advanced Membership?

This is official certification to recognise companies that meet standards in the Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) and the Common Assessment Standard (CAS). This means AF Switchgear are officially a business that provides safety first in all levels of service.

This membership also connects suppliers and buyers nationwide and the scheme helps to build and support lasting business relationships within the health & safety and construction industries.

The main goals of the Achilles BuildingConfidence scheme is to:

Boost business credibility
Enhance company reputation and value
Increase opportunities for the business
Identify any areas for improvement

Contact Our Team

AF Switchgear is a proud Achilles BuildingConfidence member.

For all enquiries contact our team on +44 1623 555 600 or via email to sales@afswitchgear.co.uk.

FacilitiesJune 18, 2020September 6, 2022

Remote Factory Acceptance Tests

During these changing and challenging times we have all had to adapt our usual way of doing business in many areas.

One such change has been the introduction of Remote Factory Acceptance Testing with the use of Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Our engineers have been tasked with hosting the events via live streaming using mobile cameras and stabilising equipment.

The tests to date have been extremely successful with excellent feedback from clients who were not only keen to praise Test Teams for their efforts but also to point out the huge steps in reducing all of our carbon footprints.

Check out the quick walk-trough video on our LinkedIn:

Covid-19, Internal NewsJune 5, 2020September 6, 2022

Covid-19 Update

At AF Switchgear we have a dedicated Incident Response Management team under the umbrella name ‘AF irm’. As a result the team have produced a risk assessment to ensure our employees and visitors are working safely during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The risk assessment sets out safe systems of work in order to manage the risk within the business and sets out measures to ensure social distancing. Emphasis is also placed on the physical and mental wellbeing of all employees by introducing appropriate cleaning and hygiene procedures across all Group activities.