BISPA (Building and Industrial Services Pipework Academy) recently held their inaugural BISPA-in-London pipework awareness workshops to educate and train end users and specifiers and create awareness on the importance of ensuring correct specifications in pipework systems.

The pipework awareness workshops were held at the London Building Centre, where BISPA-in-London has installed a permanent learning pod.

Using a mix of traditional classroom based lectures and hands on Virtual Reality (VR), attendees learned about pipework specifications, pipework installation, galvanic corrosion and pipework related BIM and VR.

BISPA-in-London brought together leading industry experts from the Tubes Business of Tata Steel, Loughborough University, Cranfield University and the Galvanisers Association to speak at the sessions.

The feedback received from attendees was very positive.

“The workshops provided me with an improved awareness of steel tube and I also learned further key points on corrosion. It also provided a good introduction to new technology like VR” Robbie Williams, Wolseley.

“Very interesting afternoon. From a sales point of view it is very useful to have a better understanding of how tubes behave once installed” Tim Morton-Turner, Wolseley.

“Great event. It is nice to see the message getting out to the industry” Gavin Wedge, BSS.

“It reminded me how I need to keep myself up-to-date. BISPA is doing a lot of good work, particularly in respect of relating this to the Building Services industry” Gary Mann, Cadline Ltd.

“I came here today as a cold-formed pipe installer looking to see the advantages of hot-finished. I found the course very informative and very relevant to what we are doing” Dave McLouglin, Megan Mechanical Services.

“The event was very interesting and of great value. It was very interesting to see how BISPA are promoting the benefits of hot-finished tubes. CMT are very supportive of some of the key messages for hot products that we saw today” Steve Pickett, CMT. Steve went on to say “today’s event gave me more chance to engage with people in the industry”.

“As an installer it’s interesting to hear about BIM and I look forward to seeing what this holds for the future” Sam Conway, Scomac Services Ltd.

“All the speakers clearly had knowledge of their field, but delivered information in simple to follow way” David Green, Interserve.

This was the first of many proposed regular pipework awareness courses intended to be held by BISPA-in-London.

“Incorrect pipework requirements continue to be specified within building services projects, resulting in incorrect or poor quality materials being used” said Dr. Faisal Durrani, BISPA Manager. He went on to say “BISPA was specifically established to address this and to improve the awareness of pipework related issues, innovations and BIM through networking and knowledge transfer opportunities as well as a range of CIBSE approved CPD courses that provide a mixture of both classroom and hands on training using BISPA’s unique  interactive training rigs”.