Hazardous Area Floodlighting Pioneer Celebrates Centenary

July 14, 2010 - PRLog -- Founded on Clydeside in 1910, Chalmit is celebrating 100 years in business.  The company has grown and evolved continuously, relocating in the 1930’s, diversifying into electrical equipment in the 1940’s and becoming a major supplier to the offshore and onshore oil and gas sector from the 1970’s onwards.
   
Originally known as Andrew Chalmers & Mitchell, the company were brass founders supplying Clyde shipbuilders with high quality marine fittings.  The Cunard-White Star liner RMS Queen Mary, built by the John Brown yard in 1934, used Chalmit fittings.  From the 1950’s the company began to service a larger marine market including fishing, merchant shipping and the international marine market where the extreme environment demands exceptional reliability from equipment.

The development of North Sea oil and gas from the 1970’s saw the company become a specialist supplier of lighting for hazardous areas and harsh environments.  This led to international diversification and the opening of offices in Utrecht, the Netherlands 1979 and Singapore in 1989.

Now part of the Connecticut based Hubbell Electrical Group, the company has world-wide presence.  Research, design and manufacturing remain in Glasgow on the Hillington Road Industrial Estate.  To celebrate the centenary the company has chartered the PS Waverley and will be taking staff, their families and guests on a sailing trip down the Clyde estuary enroute to the Isle of Bute in July.

In 2002, after a global search for suitable equipment, Chalmit was selected as the supplier of choice by engineers at Cape Canaveral for the Atlas V launch pad.  To date the Evolution Junior floodlights have continued to reliably provide safety illumination through more than 20 launches.  The company continues to invest in innovation and seek new challenges to take the business into the next 100 years.  


More Information
Sarah Davidson, Tel. 0044 (0)141 882 5555 Fax. 0044 (0)141 883 3704
E-mail: sdavidson@hubbell-scotland.com, Web: www.chalmit.com
Chalmit Lighting, PO Box 5575, Glasgow, G52 9AP, Scotland

High resolution images are on the web at www.ainsmag.co.uk/ch232/4738ch1a-100yr.htm


Additional Information
The Clyde Built PS Waverley was launched in 1946 and entered service for the London and North East Railway Company on west of Scotland route from the Clyde to Arrochar.  In 1948 control passed to the Caledonian Steam Packet Company (later to become Caledonian MacBrayne) and the vessel continued in service until 1973.

A charity, the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society, acquired the vessel for one GB pound (£1.00) and following a successful fund raising operation was able to refit, restore and upgrade the steamer to meet modern safety standards.  The Waverley is now used both on the Clyde and around the UK coast to provide tourist excursions.  It is the oldest sea-going paddle steamer in the world and is listed on the British National Register of Historic Ships as ‘a vessel of pre-eminent national importance’.

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Chalmit Lighting is committed to producing offshore (oil and gas exploration), onshore, marine and industrial lighting products that give reliable performance in extreme environments. A leading supplier to the hazardous area market, the company manufactures fluorescent and HID luminaires with international certification to meet every need. These approvals cover hazardous area classification in accordance.with the ATEX directive, CSA, CEPEL (Brazil) and GOST R (Russia).