Innovative underwater isolations for valve & pipework replacement

David Brown

David Henthorn Brown BSc CEng FICE is Principal Reservoir Engineer at the Canal & River Trust. He is a consultant to Stillwater Associates and the Panel for Historical Engineering Works (PHEW) Member for ICE West Midlands. David has over 45 years’ experience in civil engineering, mostly in canals and reservoirs. His interest in historical engineering goes back to the 1960s.

Paul Edwards

Paul is the Managing Director of Edwards Diving Services (EDS) which has been established for thirty years. He is still an “in date” diver and very much hands on in his approach to resolving underwater challenges. His experience in adapting mechanical solutions and taking them subsea has proved extremely successful in carrying out a number of isolations to failed valves across a wide sector of industry, including Nuclear, utilities, power generation and steel manufacturing.

James Blackhall

James Blackhall is Managing Director of Blackhall Engineering Ltd. and has over 30 years of valve manufacturing experience specifically in Water, Oil and Gas, Energy and Cryogenic sectors. James is an advocate of British manufacturing and self-confessed “Yorkshire-centric” using local supply chain wherever possible. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Sheffield Hallam University in 1986 he worked in Germany before joining the family business. Whereupon the business grew rapidly, in 1989 he acquired the IP to manufacture the Blakeborough Larner-Johnson®, and their large bore water valves.

Prestigious water projects include; main water valves supplying 60% of water into New York City, Marathon Dam Athens, James Cook fountain outside Houses of Parliament, Australia, and manufacturing the biggest gate valves on the planet for Texas USA measuring over 14m high and weighing in at 117 tonnes.