Barum & Dewar is pleased to announce a new contract win with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).

One of the world’s top oceanographic institutions, the NOC undertakes world leading research in large scale oceanography and ocean measurement technology innovation; working with government and business to turn great science and technology into advice and applications. It supports scientists in universities and research institutes with facilities, research infrastructure and irreplaceable data assets – enabling the UK to harness the full power and diversity of its ocean science talent.

Following successful delivery of bespoke cases for large pieces of oceanographic equipment in the past, the NOC approached Barum & Dewar to provide protective packaging for the transport of its submarine gliders and accessories to several coastal deployments around the UK.

The submarine gliders are highly sophisticated, and extremely valuable scientific hardware that gather oceanographic data for a wide variety of applications. This kit travels in a ‘ready to deploy’ state, so their safe and secure storage and transit is of paramount importance.

The NOC’s existing cases limit the number of gliders it can transport at any one time. This, coupled with the fact that the cases can be stored on deck or quayside, in harsh saltwater environments at temperatures ranging anywhere from -10 to +30 degrees Celsius, forms the basis of the brief to Barum & Dewar.

With over 15 years of experience working in the subsea sector, Barum & Dewar is perfectly placed to design new protective cases for the submarine gliders, working to propose a solution that is lightweight, durable and space efficient.

Barum & Dewar has secured a follow-on order from leading aerospace company, Leonardo. This latest contract will see Barum & Dewar provide a range of additional Falcon Shield deployable protective cases and builds on the success of previous deliveries.

Leonardo is among the top ten world players in Aerospace, Defence and Security with significant industrial presence in the UK. Barum & Dewar has been a trusted supplier of rugged, deployable cases, racks and protective packaging for more than ten years.

In 2019, Barum & Dewar worked in close partnership with Leonardo to design and manufacture a bespoke protective packaging solution to ensure the safe transportation and storage of Falcon Shield.

Falcon Shield is a rapidly deployable, scalable and modular system designed to address the threat from low, slow and small unmanned air systems (UAS). Falcon Shield’s flexible configurable system enables highly accurate detection, tracking, identification, geo-location and mitigation of UAS threats through a complimentary, fully integrated suite of sensors and effectors.

Falcon Shield’s software Command, Control and Situational Awareness (C2SA) environment provides a modular integration framework and intuitive user interface enabling comprehensive monitoring of the UAS threat environment and delivery of effective threat mitigation.

As a deployable modular system, all components are required to be fully protected and easily handled during transportation. The previously designed and field-proven solutions from Barum & Dewar have once again been selected by Leonardo to support its latest contract awards.

Alan Gemmell, Procurement Manager at Leonardo, said,

“Having worked closely with Barum & Dewar to produce the Falcon Shield cases back in 2019 and seeing first-hand how professional and knowledgeable the team are, the exceptional quality of the cases and the timely manner in which they were delivered, there was no doubt that we’d work together again.”

Barely three months into the new year and deliveries of additional ruggedised transit cases and 19” rack housings to the UK Ministry of Defence have already begun at Barum & Dewar. Deliveries are scheduled to continue over the next couple of months as hundreds of cases are fitted out with bespoke Computerised Numerical Control (CNC) routed internal foam, fabricated aluminium bracketry, webbing straps and full label sets.

Due to the current challenges faced within the global supply chain and the logistical uncertainties surrounding international freight, Barum & Dewar’s operations team chose to have the military-accredited empty cases and racks shipped directly from our partner SKB’s US manufacturing facility in several 40ft containers straight to our dedicated foam facility in Southampton. Once received, the empty cases are being united with previously manufactured foam inserts, assembled, packed and shipped straight to Ministry of Defence stores.

The cases and racks are all part of the NSoIT(D) five-year contract awarded to Barum & Dewar in 2020 and will provide protection to a range of IT hardware and associated communication equipment during field deployment, enabling rapid delivery to the frontline.

David Frame, Managing Director at Barum & Dewar, said,

“Having worked closely with Ministry of Defence teams for the past two years, we have a clear understanding of the intricacies of the project and the specific needs of the client, which has allowed us to continue to deliver market-leading protective packaging solutions that are bespoke to their needs.”

Dave Rouse, our Technical Design Engineer, discusses all things large scale packaging design, from initial client briefs to technical challenges and the finished product. 

Barum & Dewar has a long history of supplying large, bespoke containers to key clients in the space and defence sector and work alongside businesses such as Airbus, SSTL and the Ministry of Defence. In the space sector, our large bespoke containers are used to transport equipment such as satellite hardware including small satellites, parts for larger satellites and a number of related items. In the defence sector, we’ve developed bespoke packaging for a wide array of equipment with some of the largest containers being for submarine periscopes.

We work closely with our clients on these types of projects to ensure we design a product that is completely fit for purpose and will match their needs. At the initial stage we run through how they intend to use the product through its whole lifecycle so we can establish what features they need, for example if it needs waterproofing or must be airtight or whether it will need lifting points or forklift points. We’re not afraid to question and challenge our clients to make sure we design something that works completely for them, and we’ll never take the easiest option.

When designing products to such a large scale there are many factors to be taken into consideration. One of the biggest challenges we face is designing something that’s as compact and lightweight as possible whilst still being completely robust so it’s important for us to get this right. Our Creo 3D CAD modelling system helps us visualise the entire product at the design stage so we can test different scenarios and ultimately find the right balance.

There are also several technical challenges throughout the design process, one of these being selecting the appropriate shock mounts so that when the equipment is subject to vibrations and movement during transit it isn’t at any risk of being damaged. To mitigate this, we work closely with shock and vibration control specialists, Socitec who run advanced calculations with our client’s data, for example the item’s maximum G loading, to determine the correct shock mounts.

Something we are seeing more often with our large bespoke containers, especially concerning space hardware, are more stringent health and safety procedures coming into play which is leading to higher test ratings. For example, on large containers the testing ratings we used to see were around 1.2x the gross mass but now some clients are requesting 2.5x so we’ve had to change the way we design. We’re very adaptable to our client requirements so we’ve been able to accommodate this well.

We see our clients coming back to us time and time again for large, bespoke packaging and that is down to the interaction and collaboration we have with them throughout the entirety of the project. Our clients feel assured we will deliver a product that works for them because we are focused on asking the right questions and are obsessive about detail. This translates directly into the quality of our products as we are so committed to getting the design right from the very beginning.

With over 80 years’ experience in aluminium construction operating from three production plants in Europe, Zarges has been a key strategic supply partner to Barum & Dewar for almost 25 years.

With shared corporate values, close attention to detail and an unwillingness to compromise on quality Zarges have long been a trusted and reliable supply partner to B&D. With a deep industry knowledge and high levels of technical expertise B&D are regularly sought to advise on and design suitable product protection solutions. The wide range of high quality aluminium cases and containers from Zarges are an excellent foundation for B&D to develop bespoke protective packaging solutions for clients whose requirements demand even greater sophistication and features.

The two businesses communicate openly with one another, with the technical teams regularly in contact to share and obtain data that ensures any enhancements and added features work seamlessly with their designs. Having worked together for so long there is a huge degree of trust between both teams with ideas and suggestions shared openly for the benefit of our clients. B&D’s direct access to the technical support offered by Zarges underpins both the relationship that exists as well as ensuring B&D are up to date with the very latest product and technical developments.

Neil Harper, Sales Manager at Zarges said of the relationship:

“You can really see the deep industry knowledge that Barum & Dewar has. Their team has a huge level of technical expertise and their determination to find the right solution for the customer is admirable.”

He continued,

“Zarges prides itself on the quality of our products and in many sectors, we are regarded as the industry standard. It is vital that we trust our partners and we have complete confidence that Barum & Dewar will always align themselves to our exceptional delivery and customer service standards with an outstanding result for our clients. Recently, hazardous goods transportation has become a big challenge in the UK and Europe with ADR regulations limiting the way in which the end users can transport goods, for example lithium-ion batteries now require very specialist transport. This is a growth market for Zarges, who works closely with industry bodies to ensure its products meet the guidelines. This is an example of the type of industry knowledge that is shared openly between Zarges and Barum & Dewar, which enables us to stay on top of the ever-evolving regulations and better serve our clients.”

David Frame, Managing Director at Barum & Dewar commented:

“Our partnership with Zarges has seen the delivery of some amazing projects and provided Barum & Dewar with the opportunity to demonstrate not only its own capabilities but to showcase the benefits of true co-operation and collaboration. Whether it is the delivery of high performance Mitraset 19” racks to a key defence project, the addition of shock mounted plates within a K475 container for a space client or foam filled K470 lightweight containers to an industrial customer the results never fail to impress”