Wates, JCB and a company which make bolts for Crossrail were among the winners of the 2016 Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
The awards, which recognise British businesses or organisations who excel in trade, innovation or sustainable development, were announced today, the Queen’s 90th birthday.
Excalibur Screwbolts received their second Queen’s Award for Innovation for the Excalibur Screwbolt Plus. The bolt is highly corrosion resistant, with a design life of 120 years, and is currently being used on the UK’s highest profile engineering project, Crossrail.
Wates has been recognised for its approach to sustainable development. In particular, it was praised for supporting education in deprived areas, engagement with social enterprises, and support for helping young people and long-term unemployed people into work. Additionally, Wates was cited for its continued commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 10% annually, and diverting 98% of waste from landfill.
JCB Power Systems has won an innovation award for the development of its Ecomax engine family. With tight regulations reducing the acceptable levels of engine emissions for many construction machines, JCB Power Systems responded by developing a combustion system which prevents the creation of emissions in the first place, rather than eliminating them later using a catalyst or a filter. The engines are 10% more fuel efficient than their predecessors.
Blok N Mesh wins an innovation award for their work with on-ground fencing systems. Their POLMILA security fencing system has been designed to accept a variety of ballasts, incorporates vehicle gates and pedestrian doors, and can be used flexibly on uneven and sloping ground. 25 kilometres of POLMILA was used on 28 different sites for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Ground Control has won an innovation award for its Winter Maintenance ICT System, a live reporting services that allows the company to respond to adverse weather conditions in their gritting operations. The aim of this project was to create a system to facilitate the delivery of weather dependent, triggered, gritting services across national and regional contracts and report service updates to customers in real time.
Aqua Fabrications receives an innovation award for their innovation in rail drainage systems. The lightweight, glass-reinforced plastic product claims to have a significant effect on reducing risk of injuries from manual handling during installation. It also requires less time and fewer operatives on site.
