The corporate world has long since been holding conferences and meetings in hotels.

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In fact, an article in Corporate News examines the ways that hotels can capitalise on the changes and dynamics within the meeting, events and conference industry.

However, for the person organising the event, choosing the right venue can be a challenge in itself. Finding an accessible location, finding somewhere that can accommodate large groups of people and ensuring that all of the necessary facilities and technology are available can be tricky. If you are tasked with finding the right hotel for your company’s next meeting, conference or event, then are some things to think about when looking for the perfect hotel venue.

Enlist the Professionals

If you have a particularly important or tricky event to organise, then consider enlisting the help of event consultants, who will have experience of planning and executing events in hotels all over the country. Their experience and industry contacts with meeting rooms Windsor and indeed all over the UK could be an invaluable help.

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Location

Location is important when you are bringing a number of people from different areas together. Generally speaking, the best option is to go for a town or city centre location that has accessible public transport links for those attending. Meeting rooms Windsor, for example, have a number of bus routes, train lines and parking facilities within the general area of the venue. In some cases you may also need to consider whether the venue can provide overnight accommodation for people who may not want to commute back after a long day or indeed for events scheduled to last longer than a day. Sometimes discounts may be applied to rooms when the booking is made, so make sure you ask.

Know the Event

Having a clear understanding of the type of event that you’re organising is the first key factor in hiring the right place. Only then can you ensure that the venue is suitable in terms of size and facilities. For example, a meeting or conference generally requires a large area with seating and perhaps audio or digital equipment that might be required for speaking or presentations. An exhibition, however, may need more open space for stalls and stands to be set up ready to showcase products.

Elastomers and rubber compounds are widely used in industry throughout the world. From natural latex rubber to the latest innovations in fluorosilicates and TPEs.

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The history of rubber

But these materials aren’t new to us. Rubber itself has been around for thousands of years although it only came to Europe in the sixteenth century when the Spanish became fascinated by a ball that would bounce. In the mid-seventeen hundreds, London based Joseph Priestley also discovered that you could remove pencil marks using a piece of rubber, hence the name which we all know today. Because of these rather random uses, rubber remained somewhat of a novelty until the mid-eighteen hundreds when Charles Goodyear discovered a process that would convert rubber into a hard, durable material, known as Vulcanisation. Suddenly this novelty product had a whole new lease of life. Let’s take a look at how rubber compounds and elastomers are made and used today?

Categories and uses of rubber compounds and elastomers

These products are used both as the materials for finished products and as moulds for other finished products. Rubber mouldings are widely used in a number of industries, one such being automotive. Here rubber is used for everything from tyres, to suspension components and wiper blades.

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There are three moulding processes; injection, compression and transfer. Each has its own benefits depending on the finished item and quantity required.

Specialist companies such as https://www.meadex.co.uk/rubber-moulding/ provide bespoke injection moulding services. If you’re looking for a supplier it’s worth checking whether they have ISO accreditation. The International Organisation for Standardisation brings together experts in their fields to prepare standard guidelines for best practice, and certification ensures your supplier will provide you with products of the highest quality and which are fit for purpose.

During the injection moulding process, the rubber or elastomer is injected into the mould tool using a syringe. It is generally used for high volume production and when using materials such as LSR (liquid silicone rubber).

Compression moulding is when a slug of rubber is placed into the tool and the tool is then closed to exert pressure to compress the raw material into the required shape. It is most commonly used when the raw material is a black rubber and for lower volume runs. Transfer moulding is a variation of compression moulding.

In the sheet metal industry, press bending is a key part of the process used to create exact folds. These machines are either manual or driven by one of two methods, hydraulic or electric.

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Press brake machines are serious pieces of kit and should only be operated by employees with the appropriate training and qualifications and the National Occupational Standards Agency provides information on the competencies an operator should have.

If your workforce has been used to using traditional hydraulic press brakes you may be loathed to switch to an electric version. You may feel that you will incur training costs, resistance from staff and perhaps decreased productivity. But there are some key benefits to an electric press brake that may make you reconsider. Let’s take a look at five of the key differentiations between electric and hydraulic press brakes.

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Capacity

A hydraulic press brake wins hands down when it comes to folding capacity as they can handle much larger sheets than their electric counterparts. However, what it makes up for in capacity it loses in operating time. The hydraulic brake takes much more time to maintain and to make adjustments such as changing tools, for example.

If your business requires electric press brakes companies such as https://www.cotswold-machinery-sales.co.uk/euromac/electric-press-brakes/ provide detailed information about their product.

Energy consumption

A hydraulic press brake uses considerably more energy than the electric version. It is a workhorse that can churn out mass quantities of simple bends. But because it works continuously while all the aforementioned adjustments are being made, it consumes a greater amount of energy than an electric press.

Accuracy

If you’re looking to create extremely accurate folds and bends then an electric press is probably more suited to your needs. For example, if the products you manufacture have little room for variance or complex, multiple parts.

Volume of waste

It stands to reason that if the level of accuracy is increased with an electric press then the level of waste is reduced. This can be a key determining factor if you’re working with more expensive sheet metals.

Cost

An electric press brake will, without doubt, cost more to purchase than a hydraulic version, however, the benefits to your business in terms of precision, operating and maintenance time seem to outweigh this fact in certain circumstances.

Inventory is an asset, but it is also a liability. Both raw materials and finished goods take up space, with the cost of the space they occupy often a critical overhead for businesses.

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If you could run your business without inventory, you would save on rent, rates, security infrastructure, transportation, stock handling labour, storage units, depreciation and insurance. Together, these expenses are referred to as the carrying cost.

Inventory sits on shelves or lies around in piles, seemingly doing nothing. A shocking number of businesses have little idea how much inventory they have, let alone how much it is costing them. Here are five ideas for getting to grips with it:

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Consignment inventory

You can often offload a portion of your inventory to your retailers or other business partners, as having more stock or materials close to hand is often very convenient for them. Although they don’t pay you up front – instead, they only pay for what they use – your carrying costs and/or space problems are significantly ameliorated. You will want to ensure that you have the right equipment in place to do this ad this may include looking at forklifts for moving your products around. You can contact a Plant Hire Leicester company such as https://harboroughhire.uk/ if you are looking for equipment like this.

Set key performance indicators

Monitor everything you can, such as inventory turnover, shelving use, delivery times, fill-rates, write-offs and write-downs. Once you have the stats, you have something to work with and can see the effect of your new practices. To improve your shelving use and stock movement efficiency, consult a shelving specialist about better warehousing solutions. This will help you to achieve those leaner KPIs.

Lead time reduction

Buying – and selling – in bulk has its advantages, but carrying costs are not one of them. If you can smooth out the flows of stock and materials with smaller but more frequent orders, you can safely stock less at any given time. For this to work, it helps if you reduce paperwork and streamline the ordering process.

Perpetual inventory systems

Computerised stock management enables purchase orders to be generated entirely automatically in response to stock levels and new requisitions. Real-time information also brings a host of other benefits.

Forecasting accuracy

Computerised stock management means you can watch every purchase and sale moving in real time. You will always know exactly where the business stands and can quickly identify your best products, anticipate new trends, and experiment with new products. Not least, you can use this new source of centralised information to identify and eliminate obsolete lines and slow performers.

The recent spectacular expansion of the Irish and United Kingdom logistics and distribution sector has been largely driven by the internet and electronic commerce. As welcome as the growth has been to industry participants, there is a consensus that online sales have mandated significant changes in the way they do business and that evolution is going to be the constant watchword for companies trying to achieve growth. In this piece, we discuss the three key ways in which online commerce has triggered improvements in the demand chain. Continue reading Online sales and their demad on supply chains in 2020 →

Gas boilers (and all gas appliances) are potentially very dangerous pieces of equipment. They work by combusting (burning) gas, and that presents the risk of fire and explosion. They can also give off carbon monoxide if they are not burning correctly, which is a highly toxic gas.

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You can make sure that your gas appliances are safe by having them installed, serviced and safety checked by a Gas Safe-registered engineer. This includes any appliances and your boiler and heating system which you should have installed and checked by a Boiler Service Essex company like https://www.essexcountygas.com/essex-boilers/boiler-service-essex/ to ensure it is running smoothly and more importantly, safely.

Gas Safe-registered engineers

According to the Gas Safe Register website they are the official listing site for gas businesses that have been registered to work safely and legally on gas appliances such as boilers, cookers and fires. It is illegal for an unregistered engineer to work on your appliances.

The Gas Safe register works hard to protect the public from unsafe gas installations and repairs. They have a national investigations team who actively track down illegal gas installers and repairers.

They carry out regular inspections of work carried out by Gas Safe-registered engineers, and they investigate reports of unsafe work. They also work hard to raise awareness of gas safety issues, including carbon monoxide poisoning. The Gas Safe Register took over from the CORGI register in 2009.

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Radiators

As you are having your heating system checked by a gas safe engineer you could possibly look at what radiators you have and potentially make an upgrade should you need to.

Insurance cover

When you use a Gas Safe engineer for the work will be covered by your insurance if anything does go wrong. By choosing a registered installer such you will know that your insurance will be valid, and you will not be left out of pocket if something happens during or after the work.

The safety of your loved ones

It is not possible to put a price on the safety of your loved ones. Yet, millions of jobs are carried out by unregistered, and therefore illegal, operators every year. This puts millions of people at risk from carbon monoxide poisoning, fires and explosions. People have died and many more have been injured.

The only way to be sure that your engineer is both qualified and experienced enough to work on your gas appliance is to check yourself by visiting the Gas Safe website and using the search facility.

You can check if they are on the register at all and then check that they are competent for the specific job that they are doing for you.

Electricity is all around us and it’s a very important concept in science but is often misunderstood. Here is the definition of what electricity really is:

It is a type of energy resulting from an electric charge flow. Energy can be defined as something capable of work or applying force onto an object to make it move. For electricity, the power is the attraction or repulsion that occurs between charged particles.

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If you have electricity, it can be either in the form of kinetic or potential. It is most commonly experienced in the form of potential, such as stored energy from the position of charged particles.

The movement of charged particles is what we call electricity. Another form is static electricity. This occurs because of an imbalance between the positive and negative charge of an object. It is a form of potential energy as well. If there is enough of the accumulated energy it can be discharged in the form of a spark, like lightning, for example. When this happens, the potential energy has been transformed into kinetic energy. For any electrical issues in your home, always be sure to use a qualified Electrician Essex like Electrician Essex SM Eectrical

How does it work?

It was Michael Faraday, a British scientist who discovered a way to produce electricity in the early 19th century. Experiments involved moving a conductive metal loop through magnetic poles. What he was able to prove is that the electrons in copper wire move freely and all electrons carry a negative charge.

This movement is controlled by attractive forces between the positive charge and the electrons, while the repulsive force occurring between negatively charged electrons and ions. Simply put, the electric field around the charged particles, such as electrons, puts the force on the other charged particles, making it move and work.

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As long as a particle is charged, it can produce electrical energy, whether it is the electrons, protons, positive or negative ions, positrons or atomic nuclei.

Where is it used?

This energy is what we use to power our appliances. Every time we turn on a light bulb or power up the television, this is an example of potential energy turning into electrical energy. The potential energy becomes a different sort of energy, such as heat, light, kinetic and mechanical example.

A further example of electrical energy is found in the battery. With the battery, the energy source will come from ions in solution than the electrons in the metal.

We can even find an example of electric energy in the human body itself. Electrons, ions and hydrogen ions are found in high concentrations on one side of the membrane, creating an electrical potential that is used for processes such as moving materials around the body, nerve impulses and muscle movement.

Some examples of electric energy are:

battery

alternating Current (AC)

direct current (DC)

lightning

the energy generated by an electric eel

capacitors

It’s important to remember that a moving charged particle, electron, ion or proton always generates a magnetic field. Also, when changing the magnetic field, an electric current will always be produced in a conductor, such as copper wire. For this reason, they often call the study of electricity electromagnetism because they are always linked.

Relocating a laboratory is a major endeavour, involving often hazardous substances and fragile, expensive apparatus. Before attempting such a move, here are some essential things to know:

1. Regulations for transport

There are many different regulations to consider depending on the type of materials being moved, where they are moving from and their end destination. As well as national regulations, there will be local and facility-specific regulations to adhere to as well. This can become complex, so it’s best to hire a professional lab relocation outfit to ensure all is carried out as it should be. For Lab Relocation Services, visit a site like Aport Global, suppliers of Lab Relocation Services.

2. Hazardous substances

There will be different regulations for the transportation of any material considered hazardous. Such regulations are designed to protect public safety and the safety of those working in the transportation.

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3. Transportation if different temperatures

The ability to maintain a certain temperature for substances is one of the main issues affecting a lab relocation. A professional relocation service will be able to offer reliable transport in climate-controlled environments. The temperatures will be monitored at all stages of the move and emergency back-up plans in place to prevent any thawing of frozen samples, for example.

4. The cost

As you can imagine, moving all the different components of a laboratory is a costly operation, both in terms of time and money. Instead of organising multiple agencies to deal with a multitude of tasks, hiring one specialist company to deal with a lab relocation brings the whole process together, saving costs, time and effort.

Dealing with one company is much easier than contacting multiple organisations. A coordinated move under one professional outfit will be far less stressful and easier to avoid the hassles of dealing with loss and compliance.

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5. Loss prevention

During any move, whether domestic or commercial there is a risk of things going missing, equipment getting damaged and set-up being required at the final destination. The more people involved in a relocation, the more opportunities there are for problems to arise with issues such as loss and damage. Laboratory equipment is delicate and expensive so there is a great deal of trust put in those tasked with transporting it.

When setting up the equipment in the new location, there will be a period of extensive cleaning, installation and recalibration. To ensure that these practices are carried with ultimate efficiency and safety, it’s a good idea to have one professional relocation expert dealing with the entire project.