SEM Manufacturing.

Carbon-focused climate control.

SEM is an international manufacturer of high-quality permanent magnet servo motors – a product used for motion control in machinery, tools, and robotics. After the company moved to a new more spacious manufacturing and research facility in Dartford, East London, it needed the building refurbished to meet production standards.

Precise environments.

Our brief was to design efficient climate control for the assembly area and machine shop. This was to provide a stable environment for the production of the precision-engineered components needed for the highly accurate servo motors.

We had a number of issues that also added to the difficulty of the challenge. One was achieving the control required without accurate information about the equipment, which we needed to assess the total cooling loads required. The other was that fluorescent and emergency lighting was needed, which has a high lux level and wouldn’t contribute towards energy efficiency.

Working with restraints.

Our commitment to doing the best job possible meant we helped provide a significant level of early stage design information that was not readily available for the client. We then continued to work closely together to ensure the contractor’s design solution met SEM’s aspirations.

Our design focused on flexibility for future expansion. At the same time, we managed to minimise the operational energy significantly, using a low-carbon strategy and energy-efficient technologies. To achieve a BREEAM Very Good rating for a facility of this type is no mean feat – but these solutions ensured it was possible.