Armstrong 8000 Series Packaged Pump Solutions Speed the Way for Neasden Depot Refurb

Neasden Depot is the largest depot in the London Underground network, and the main maintenance depot for the Metropolitan Line. The major refurbishment project currently underway at the depot will create facilities suitable to accommodate a new fleet of air conditioned Tube trains.

The scale of the project, and the need to keep disruption to a minimum for passengers, meant that timescales were extremely tight. Main contractor BAM Nuttall and M & E contractor M J Quinn Integrated Services Ltd decided that off-site manufacture would have major benefits for this high-profile project. They approached Armstrong Integrated Limited - experts in off-site manufactured integrated plant rooms and other off-site solutions.

Armstrong 8000 Series pump solutions are complete fluid management systems, which are pre-designed and manufactured off-site, with the capability to be configured to suit the specific application. They offer specifiers lowest first installed cost, reduced footprint and the opportunity for outstanding energy efficiency performance. While work continued on site at Neasden Depot, Armstrong pre-assembled and tested the pump packages at its purpose-designed factory in Halesowen, West Midlands.

The package included a motive power distribution board requiring a single point of mains supply for each module. Control was supplied via an integrated Armstrong IPS multi-zone controller. The controller, mounted on the module and wired in the factory, maximises energy savings by modulating the pump speed to suit demand. On the appropriate date within the build schedule, the modules were delivered to site ready to be assembled into the system pipework.

As the pump solutions had been fully assembled and tested before leaving Armstrong’s factory, many potential risks traditionally associated with major construction projects were eliminated. Key building services elements were carried out concurrently with other parts of the construction phase, avoiding delays and bottle-necks. In addition, on-site installation and commissioning times were reduced considerably.

As 8000 Series pump solutions are pre-designed by Armstrong (a world-leading manufacturer of HVAC equipment with almost 80 years experience in pump design), costs typically incurred by the contractor at system design stage were reduced. In addition, the installed equipment offers the best possible integration of pumps with efficient variable speed pump control technology, to deliver exceptional performance throughout the equipment’s lifetime.

Armstrong Systems Solution Group Director, Dominic Cutts, said, “For a large-scale project such as Neasden Depot, off-site manufacture can be a valuable way of simplifying project management, achieving factory quality, and speeding the installation times. In addition there is a growing awareness that, where the system is integrated with control and automation by the equipment manufacturer, there are opportunities for energy efficiency that cannot generally be achieved when using traditional on-site assembly approaches.”