MandM Direct Ltd new warehouse project 2015.
In early 2015 Melcon won the contract to provide the electrical installation for MandM Direct Ltd at their new warehouse on the Moreton Business Park. The new warehousing facility is needed to help the company with its continued growth, to provide extra storage space and help deal with returned items. The new warehouse is the end unit of one of the site’s existing buildings and measures roughly 100m wide by 150m long.
An extensive refurbishment of the structure was carried out. An amenities block was built within the warehouse, with male, female, and disabled toilets and a canteen for employees along with two stand alone office blocks for staff.
The first job was to install a new 18 way distribution panel and 70mm tails to connect it to the existing main switch. The job had to be done on a Saturday, to reduce disruption, as the electrical supply in the neighbouring unit is fed from the panel we were changing. The neighbouring company asked us to provide a generator to keep their power on throughout the day. At Melcon, we have our own 16kW generator so this was not a problem.
Our engineers then started installing the extensive cable containment around the building to allow the 9 sub mains to be wired back to the main distribution panel, all in all the Melcon engineers installed in excess of 500m of ladder rack. We installed a mixture of 450mm, 300mm and 150mmwide ladder rack depending on the amount of cables to be carried on a particular section, whilst leaving some free space for future use.
Next was the sizeable task of installing the sub main cables, of which there were 9, the longest being approximately 170m. These sub-mains were to feed local distribution boards which intern fed local circuits ranging from 13a socket outlets and conveyor control panels, to rows of lighting trunking and outside lighting.
The distribution boards installed were the ‘Schneider Acti9 Isobar Distribution Board’. There were 2 specifically for the warehouse lighting, 3 located within the offices and the amenities block, 1 solely for supplying the battery chargers for the forklift trucks, and a further 3 for general power such as sockets and the roller shutter door supplies. Above the 2 lighting distribution boards the Melcon engineers installed extension boxes to house contractors to allow emergency lights on multiple lighting trunking rows to be tested with the operation of a single rotary key switch.
A total of 16 rows of Zucchini 40A 3 phase lighting trunking was installed. 12 were located centrally to each row of storage racking, and 4 were spaced evenly above the other portion of the warehouse left open for returned goods and general storage. In total the Melcon engineers installed 2400m of Zucchini lighting trunking. Thats a massive 800 individual 3m lengths. The lighting trunking was suspended from the steel roof frame using Gripple, 100 were used per row of trunking, meaning by the end of the job we had used 1600 Gripple’s.
To the newly installed lighting trunking our engineers installed a total of 554 NVC florescent fittings,and a further 228 Cooper Lighting dedicated emergency LED fittings. The T5 florescent fittings installed all have their own programmable PIR (passive infrared) sensor which monitors 2parameters, movement and ambient light, to determine whether to turn the light on. Using this technology dramatically reduces the energy consumption of the warehouse.
Once the offices and amenities blocks had been built, the Melcon engineers had to wire the lighting and ring main socket circuits. The lighting circuits were again controlled by PIR sensors, in a bid to reduce energy consumption.
The new facility is now fully operational, helping to increase the capacity of this growing company, MandM Direct. Melcon and MandM Direct have forged a strong working relationship over the years that we have supplied our services to them. They know that we are on call 24/7, 365 days of the year if a problem were to arise at either of their sites in Moreton or Leominster.
This is what they have said about our service:
“We have used Melcon for the past 20 years which in itself should speak volumes. We use Melcon for all cases ranging from replacing broken plug sockets through to full, new build, warehouse installations. We have always found them to be courteous, responsive to needs, efficient and safe contractors. They listen to our requirements and advise on the best options to take in our interests. We have no hesitation in continuing the relationship and would happily recommend their services”.
Rob Arnold – Safety, Health, Environmental and Facilities Manager – MandM Direct
You can visit the M and M Direct website here: mandmdirect.com
