Welcome to the Mechanical Engineering Services Team

The Mechanical Engineering Services Team carry out work such as:

• Supplying and maintaining boilers-big 100’s kW Boilers (not your average domestic boilers), which supply miles, and miles of giant pipes filled with water, for heating, cooling, washing, drinking and cooking. 
• Managing equipment under great pressure, including pumps large enough to pump around 6 storeys high, that circulate around 29 buildings, sometimes pumping away waste and sewage.
• Regulating Air Compressors; for the insulation, energy conservancy, and management of systems within Buildings. This works by bringing in fresh air, extracting stale, and filtering air into the buildings.
• Designing systems, producing drawings for tenders, assessing contractors, managing, and coordinating them on site.
• Attending meetings for New Buildings, discussing with stakeholders the designs, and advising best practice, attendance onsite during construction, assessing the quality of build works.
• Maintaining statutory compliance, maintaining all those systems with contractors and the university in house team.
• Surveying assets and replacing equipment as required.

The Mechanical Engineering Services Team are based in the Atkinson Holt Building between the hours of 8.00AM-16.00PM Monday to Friday.

There is an emergency on call service for essential works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Did you know?

• The Mechanical Services team have thermal and CO2 sensors in many of the University's buildings that automatically adjust the heating or cooling to the correct temperature.
• There are multiple BeMS systems over campus which programme the heating and cooling temperatures to reduce energy usage.
• Multiple pieces of mechanical kit have been replaced and installed to run much more efficiently at a lower power consumption, which greatly saves on energy costs.
• Ventilation within the campus is provided by a variety of means, mainly by mechanical systems using fans, and natural ventilation using opening windows. The Mechanical team maintain the Air Handling Unit systems throughout the site along with contractors by the cleaning of the Air Handling Units, and the changing of filters, and carrying out efficiency checks. This addresses the three key elements of sustainability by betterment of the environment, the social scene, and economic landscape of the University.

Estates Development Requests

Within Estates, we need to be able to manage our resources whilst maintaining a strategic view of how spaces are managed and changed.

Therefore, all requests for changes to the fabric of University spaces need to be logged directly with Estates using Estates Online.

These changes might include small works such as the addition of new sockets or putting up shelves; medium scale work like adding or removing a room wall or partition; to major works such as requesting significant re-modelling of an area or the creation of entirely new spaces or buildings.

Requests to move furniture or contents from rooms are not covered by this process and should be requested through Estates Online : Request a Service : Collect and deliver.

We ask you to complete a simple form which contains prompts about the information we need.

You should begin by identifying a need, problem or opportunity that needs to be addressed. Whilst you are welcome to suggest a potential solution, please be aware that Estates may provide alternative proposals based on the information you provide.

For example:

• Don’t say – please install 5 new sockets in my office.
• Do say – there is a trip hazard in my office due to a trailing cable that is necessary to power my PC and monitors. The addition of new sockets would alleviate this risk.
• Don’t say – please remove the wall between my office and the one next door to make one big room.
• Do say – colleagues in my department wish to work more collaboratively and we would like to have a more open plan space in order to achieve this.

By framing the request in this way, Estates will be able to consider all options and ensure the most effective solution is offered.

We also ask three focused questions:

Business benefits: describe how this change benefits the business, either operationally, financially, or both. This could be at the Department, School/Service or University level.

• This is particularly important for projects with a high financial value.
• You should refer to the University’s Strategy Map wherever you think this is relevant.

Timeframe: does the project have a deadline for completion, or is there a preferred period of time for the work to take place?

Source of funding: please indicate how much of the project you expect to be funded by your School/Service. If relevant, indicate any total budgetary constraints.

Process

After you submit your request/proposal, it will first be reviewed by your School/Service Manager, then passed to Estates.

We will consider your request as a team and either:

• Approve the request and move it on to the next stage – which could be further feasibility studies, estimates or quotes; or direct assignment to our internal maintenance teams to carry out the work.
• Refer it back to the School/Service Manager for further information or clarification.
• Turn down the request, in which case we will provide some feedback.

Your School/Service Manager will always be our first point of contact, and they will need to give approval for proceeding with the project.

You will be able to view the progress of your request on Estates Online.

For additional help see the Estates Development Requests – Quick Start Guide.