The latest round of the Government’s Regional Growth Funding awards will enable TWI and a consortium of leading academic and industrial partners to realise the establishment of the new postgraduate engineering facility at Granta Park. It will train engineers for UK industry and could massively improve UK GDP.
Built in new premises adjacent to TWI’s headquarters, NSIRCTM will be established and managed by structural integrity specialist TWI, working closely with lead academic partner Brunel University, alongside the University of Cambridge and the University of Manchester. Cambridgeshire commercial builders CD Hood Ltd are always delighted to see development in Cambridgshire.

Network Rail's Technical Director of Asset Management Services, Steve Yianni, said: “Network Rail supports the creation of the Structural Integrity Research Foundation and is currently in discussion with TWI about how it can be involved.“By taking an active role in developing the engineers of the future, a foundation like this can not only give the railway the talent it needs, but also provide the rest of British industry with a stream of well-qualified engineers to drive the country forward.”
The new centre is expected to offer capacity for 200 postgraduate students and will create around 48 new jobs.

MP for South Cambridgeshire, Andrew Lansley said: “Structural integrity is a technology field critical to many sectors of engineering and advanced manufacturing. I applaud TWI in securing this major funding to enable such a remarkable extension to its high-level research into structural integrity and support for specialist skills across the country."

Every good builder like CD Hood Ltd knows the team depend on a decent brew so we are delighted to see Cambridge Consultants, are taking tea making to the next level. The company has designed a capsule-based tea-brewing system that works at the touch of a button. Edward Brunner, leader of the Industrial and Scientific Group at Cambridge Consultants, said: “While coffee systems have seen a significant amount of innovation over the last decade nothing has changed in tea brewing, leaving the tea drinker almost forgotten about. We saw a real opportunity to use our experience in the beverage industry to level the playing field and make a step change in this category.

“Through our expertise in fluidic systems and functional packaging and dedicated dispense lab facilities, we have been able to finely tune the process needed to offer the most sophisticated brewing platform to bring customised, high-quality tea dispensing into the home.”

Cambridge Consultants used its beverage industry experience to analyse how tea can be brewed differently from the traditional teapot or tea bag method and incorporated its findings into a domestic tea system. The key is specially engineered recirculating pump technology which is incorporated in the simple capsule – for maximum convenience and minimum mess.

Cambridgeshire commercial builders CD Hood Ltd we like a bit of technology. The device brews the tea in just two minutes – half the time of a traditional teapot. That will be milk and two sugars for us please.

Always on the look out for new ideas and developments in commercial buildings CD Hood Ltd came across Armstrong’s CoolZone system features on the ceiling of the main seminar area of the visitors’ centre at the heart of the Ravenscraig Regeneration Project. Designed by BRE Scotland and Kraft Architecture, the carbon-neutral, closed-panel timber-framed building represents the latest in off-site manufacture, technology integration and building management.

The CoolZone system incorporates BASF’s Micronal PCM (Phase Change Material) into Armstrong’s plain metal ceiling tiles. This material – microscopic polymer capsules containing a wax storage medium - is embedded in gypsum and then encased in the metal tile. On heating during the day and cooling at night, the wax melts and solidifies. In this way the internal temperature is regulated, ensuring a stable and comfortable environment in which to live and work.

In tests, the CoolZone tiles delayed the onset of air conditioning by approximately four to five hours in an average office. Not only can this save around 40% of the HVAC energy costs and reduce peaks in demand for air conditioning but it can also help to improve the thermal comfort for the occupants.

A CoolZone system has also been installed throughout the Victorian Terrace at the flagship Innovation Park at Watford  creating  a living refurbishment laboratory for testing current and energy products, materials, design solutions and installation techniques that make solid-wall homes more energy efficient and affordable to heat. CD Hood Ltd always try and use the most appropriate technology in any of our builds.

Five pioneers from the Cambridge BioMed cluster and a sixth eastern region company based in Norwich are among 32 UK organisations sharing £39 million government funding to accelerate development of new healthcare technology. New healthcare technology can only be a growing business and commercial builders CD Hood Ltd are happy to work with any specialist science companies to try and fulfil their building requirements. Four of the companies are based at Cambridge Science Park – Arecor Limited, Cantab Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, Discuva Ltd and Sentinel Oncology. ImmunoBiology Ltd is based at Babraham Research Campus and Intelligent Fingerprinting Ltd at Norwich Research Park.
 
These awards are the first substantial awards made from the £180 million Biomedical Catalyst – which is a programme of public funding jointly managed by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and the Medical Research Council and launched by  Prime Minister David Cameron last December.They can be awarded to universities as well as companies, and the projects are designed to speed-up the translation of scientific ideas into commercial propositions, for the greater benefit of patients.
 
Science Minister David Willetts said: “Britain is in a global race today and this £39 million investment will help keep us at the very forefront of life sciences by supporting some of our most innovative SMEs and universities. It will help take excellent ideas through to market, driving growth and helping patients benefit from the very latest technologies and treatments.”
 
Commercial building specialist CD Hood Ltd want to be part of that race to help keep SME’s growing and developing, by making good choices about their buildings needs.

As Cambridgeshire commercial builders CD Hood Ltd know the wind can whistle across the East of England, so it makes sense to see a new €2 million European funded research programme has been launched to improve opportunities for an international network of companies and universities to develop in relation to installation, operation and maintenance of offshore wind turbines.

It would seem the EU has pledged to provide funds for the national innovation centre OrbisEnergy in Lowestoft to be used for a new three-year project called ECOWindS. Initially the project will gather knowledge of installation, operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms in the UK, Germany, Denmark and Norway with the aim of halving operation and maintenance costs.

Orbis Energy’s Johnathan Reynolds, said: “The East of England is at the centre of the world’s largest market for offshore wind deployment and the UK’s most dense area of offshore wind energy development.“The wider North Sea region remains the global centre for development of offshore wind projects. The North Sea was where the first, large offshore wind projects took shape and where producers, suppliers and consultants have gathered their experiences.” 

Judy Terry, chair of OrbisEnergy and Cabinet Member for Economic Development at Suffolk County Council said: “This is a great opportunity for OrbisEnergy and East Anglia to play a leading role in research and development for the future of the offshore wind industry in the UK, Europe and beyond.” CD Hood commercial builders in Cambridgeshire always celebrate East Anglia capitalising on opportunities.