F4N status re-awarded to Chesterfield

We’re proud to announce that Joseph Ash Galvanizing in Chesterfield has again been granted ‘Fit for Nuclear’ status (F4N), and we’re still the only galvanizer in the UK to be accredited.

Developed by the Nuclear AMRC with the support of its top-tier partners (including new build developers and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority), F4N is a unique service to help UK manufacturing companies bid for work in the nuclear supply chain and measure their operations against the standards required to supply the nuclear industry.

Being granted F4N is a stringent process, and we’re pleased to be re-awarded. It demonstrates not only our excellent procedural input but also the high level of quality we consistently achieve.

As a commitment to our continued participation – and as a supplier to the nuclear industry – we will continue to be monitored by an F4N Industrial Advisor (IA). We’ll also be required to continually upload periodic updates to our action plan / continuous sustainable improvement plan, ensuring that we address any areas identified on the nuclear checklist.

Please click here to see our F4N certificate.

Many thanks to everyone at Joseph Ash Galvanizing who has worked hard to achieve this status. Thank you also to F4N for granting us the certificate. We look forward to our growing relationship with the nuclear industry.

(Photo by Mick De Paola on Unsplash)

It’s not just galvanizing quality that’s important to Joseph Ash. It’s also how efficiently and safely we manage customer collections and deliveries. Because we’re always looking for improvements in this area, we have installed TIP Insight at our Joseph Ash Chesterfield plant.

TIP Insight is a telematics-based digital and connected service which allows us to track the whereabouts of our trailers and report on their health.

Recently, we’ve fitted the device to 41 transport trailers at Chesterfield.

TIP Insight will allow us to:

Monitor brake performance and tyre pressure. This enables us to comply with the brake monitoring standards set out in the DVSA’s Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness and add an extra level of safety for our drivers.
Track our trailers, giving us a real-time view of where they are, which in turn helps us improve utilization.
Geofence our customer sites, alerting us when a trailer reaches its destination.
Reduce our carbon footprint by utilizing our fleet more efficiently.

We fitted the devices to the trailers in late June, so it’s still early days in monitoring effectiveness. We’re excited about the data, though, and we look forward to using the information produced.

In our quest to reduce our carbon footprint even more we will be installing the TIP system on our whole group fleet in due course.

Find out more about TIP Insights here.

Joseph Ash Medway has recently commissioned the first phase of pallet racking in our goods in / despatch yard. This is a significant investment at our Kent plant by Hill & Smith (parent company).

The new racking improves the safety, operational efficiency, and organisation of the site’s warehousing activities by reducing the double handling of materials and congestion in this part of the yard.

The storage includes three aisles of three-tier racking, creating 151 pallet storage spaces for finished products before despatch.

Tim Palmer, General Manager at Medway, commented: “The health and safety of our teams are paramount at all Joseph Ash sites. The new racking helps us create space and improve organisation and safety in this critical business area.”

Palmer added: “The new racking will also improve our customers’ service. For example, eliminating additional handling reduces the risk of mechanical damage to customers’ valuable work. Also, the improved visibility of all work will help our loading teams ensure items do not miss a delivery run.”

Great news! Joseph Ash Galvanizing has been awarded ISO14001, the international standard for designing and implementing an environmental management system.

The award has been granted to Head Office, as well as five of the plants: Joseph Ash Bilston, Joseph Ash Bridgend, Joseph Ash Chesterfield, Joseph Ash Telford, and Joseph Ash Walsall.

An environmental management system, often called an EMS, comprises the policies, processes, plans, practices, and records that define the rules governing how a company interacts with the environment.

Preventing companies from causing negative impacts on the environment are two of the most critical challenges facing businesses today. Achieving the ISO14001 standard shows we’re amongst the world’s businesses that care enough about the background to reduce our environmental footprint.

Congratulations to all our team members for achieving this latest standard!

Michael Worth, Head of Technical and ESG at Joseph Ash Galvanizing said “Everyone should be incredibly proud of their contributions to this achievement. This clearly demonstrates that our approach to managing our environmental impacts and our strategy to maximise environmental opportunities are on the right trajectory to delivering continual improvement in this area.”

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See some of the steps we take to minimise our impact on the environment in our Green Future plan.

The Jubilee Bank Holidays will soon be upon us, which means our plants will be closed.

If you have projects that need completing around this time, book the work in early so that we can complete it for you.

All Premier Galvanizing and Joseph Ash Galvanizing plants will be closed on Thursday 2 June and Friday 3 June 2022.

Enjoy your Bank Holidays too!

The Easter bank holidays will soon be upon us, which means our plants will be closed for the long weekend, giving our team members a well-deserved break.

If you have projects that need completing around this time, book the work in early so that we can complete it for you.

All Joseph Ash and Premier Galvanizing plants will be closed from Friday 15 April to Monday 18 April 2022.

We hope you have a great bank holiday weekend too!

Last week, our Bilston plant had a visit from Pat McFadden, Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Lucy Foster-Bowen (Commercial Manager) and Robert Nelson (Divisional Manager) showed him around the Bilston plant. Pat was impressed the variety of steel we process at Joseph Ash, including – in this photo – vine pickets for vineyards across Europe.

Bilston is proud of the plant and the work carried out there, so it’s always great to welcome new visitors.

At the beginning of the month, Lucy Foster-Bowen, Commercial Manager at Joseph Ash Bilston, showed Dr Greig Campbell around the plant. Greig is a Bilston born historian whose PhD focused on the campaign to save Bilston Steelworks in the late 1970s. The steelworks was located on the site of Joseph Ash Bilston and produced more than 275,000t of metal per year in its heyday.

Working together, Bilston and Greig plan to build a permanent exhibition of the site which will incorporate the past, the present and the future of Joseph Ash Bilston. Watch this space for more information! In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about the old steelworks:

Blackcountryhistory.org

2022 marks the dawn of a good year for Joseph Ash Bilston. Not only have they opened a new office building at the plant, but they’ve also become ISO 14001 certified. Find out more!

New office building

Joseph Ash Bilston has been going from strength to strength over the last few years, and growth meant the need for a new office building.

The office building houses our team members who look after sales, the management of the plant, and accounts. But unfortunately, they had outgrown the space, and the facilities were dated.

When the plant drew up plans for a new office, it was also an excellent opportunity to ensure a new build would be as green as possible. As a result, a state-of-the-art environmentally friendly building was designed. The building work took place in the second half of 2021, finishing just before Christmas.

Joseph Ash team members moved in at the beginning of January and are pleased with the new facilities. Not only do they have more space, but there are also some environmental features to be proud of:

Solar PV array with an output of 29087kWh

The building now has fantastic solar panels that will harness greener energy. PV means photovoltaic – a way to convert sunlight into electricity.

1 phase 10kW battery storage from the solar PV array

Solar panels are great, but it’s not always sunny in Bilston! Not a problem, though, as there are solar storage systems in place to provide energy on even the greyest days. Not only a green initiative but also cost-saving for heating costs.

Heating/cooling with air source heat pump and radiant ceiling grid panels

Traditional radiators may soon be a thing of the past, as they primarily heat the air in a space. Instead, Bilston’s new radiant heating panels radiate, heating the solid objects in areas such as people and furniture. In addition, zero gas is required to heat the building, and there’s a supplementary electric boiler supplied from solar power when needed.

SunGuard eXtraSelective – SNX 60 double glazed window glass

Bilston’s new windows further reduce energy costs by delivering thermal insulation and lowering the demand for artificial lighting, air conditioning and heating.

The environmental initiatives have ensured the new office building is carbon neutral, helping Bilston maintain its status as the greenest Galvanizer in the UK.

Our environmental initiatives continue with ISO 14001 certification

We’re pleased to announce that Joseph Ash Bilston has recently become ISO 14001 Environmental Management certified. ISO 14001 certifies that Bilston has:

Minimised how processes etc., negatively affect the environment.
Complies with environmental laws and regulations.
Continually improves in all these areas.

Joseph Ash Bilston and the entire Joseph Ash Group is delighted with the certification as part of our sustainability mission. Bilston is also proud to claim that they are now the greenest galvanizer in the UK.

As the steel construction industry moves to net-zero carbon by 2050, embracing the ideals expressed at COP26, Joseph Ash is playing its part.

Some of our decarbonisation initiatives include minimising energy usage, reusing waste heat to warm pre-treatment tanks, and improving burner efficiency. Plant emissions are also carefully controlled to ensure neighbouring communities are not adversely affected.

Our latest carbon reduction project has changed the lighting at all plants and our Head Office to be more energy efficient.

In late 2021 we engaged MODO to replace all the high-powered traditional lighting at three sites with LED fittings and motion sensors.

For example, at our Chesterfield plant, MODO replaced over 300 light fittings. The company also installed motion sensors in low traffic areas, which power the lights on immediately when motion is detected, dimming down when the site is inactive and then powering off.

The switch to Modo LED also reduced the CO2 emissions by a massive 117 metric tonnes, equivalent to the average car driving 286,867 miles!

MODO carried out the same project at Premier Galvanizing Hull, plus our Head Office. (Other Joseph Ash Group plants were updated earlier.)

Please get in touch to find out more about carbon efficiency projects at Joseph Ash Galvanizing.

You can also see how we are committed to preventing pollution and minimising environmental impacts by viewing our Green Plan interactive infographic, newly published on our website.