The UK’s London Heathrow Airport is one of the world’s busiest, a major hub of the aviation world.

The glass of the VCR (Visual Control Room) required daily cleaning to remove dirt in an attempt to maintain good visibility for air traffic controllers. This was however deemed as high maintenance and a better solution was sought.

In 1987, Ritec was called in to renovate and protect the glass on-site with the award-winning ClearShield System™, upgrading the glass to make it ‘non-stick’ and easier to clean. After treatment, ClearShield® protection proved its worth: the maintenance team only felt the need to clean the glass just once a week instead of daily, so cleaning frequency was reduced dramatically by 85%. Not only did the glass require less effort to clean, clarity was optimised for the air traffic controllers.

For more information about Ritec ClearShield®, visit www.ritec.co.uk.

Ritec International are once again delighted to announce we have successfully passed our annual ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 audit with Alcumus ISOQAR. This ensures our commitment to the customer, product and service quality, health and safety and continuous improvement is of the highest standard.

Ian Thomas, Lead Auditor of Alcumus ISOQAR, reports: “The Company were able to provide high levels of operational evidence to support the Organisation’s compliance to the requirements of the ISO9001:2015 and ISO14001:2015 standards via a range of processes audited during this two man-day remote surveillance audit.

“Clear levels of commitment to the Organisation’s management systems were evidenced. The Company’s approach in operating its management systems was seen to provide an effective overall framework to support the achievement of continual improvement, with supporting documented information maintained to support the maintenance and delivery of operational performance to ensure that service delivery remains compliant with specified internal requirement.

“A high level of customer focus and management commitment to deliver quality products and services along with providing safe working conditions for staff and its appointed contractors was demonstrated throughout the audit, based upon consideration of risk-based principles. No issues were identified during the audit.

“The audit team concludes that the organisation has established and maintained its management system in conformance with the requirements of the standard(s) and demonstrated to the audit team that the management system is effective in its ability to systematically achieve the requirements for products and or services within the scope of its activities and in accordance with its policy and objectives. The audit team concludes that the audit objectives have been fulfilled. Based on the evidence obtained during this audit, the audit team recommends that Certification should be continued.”

Martin Burkett AIIRSM, Ritec’s General Manager, commented: “We’ve operated ISO 9001 since 2008, and ISO 14001 since 2012. Within all this time we have not had a single non-conformance nor a minor, no small feat given the situation we have found ourselves in over the past year and a half and the fundamental change in the way we have had to operate to meet COVID requirements and how the audits, 2020 and 2021, have also had to change.

“Obviously, the biggest strain on Ritec this past year was the sudden sad loss of our Managing Director and Co-Founder Stephen Byers. In a way I feel this has brought everyone closer together, working closer in the metaphorical sense ensured that everything we did, we did correctly. So to the team, including our consultant Wayne Saul of Concept Quality Management Systems UK Ltd who has worked with us on ISO since day one, I would like to thank everyone for their help, and going forward, let’s continue this great record.”

For more information on Ritec International, visit www.ritec.co.uk.

The Glass House is a water park complex completed in October 1998. A popular attraction, it was designed by Ken Yokogawa Architect & Associates. The building won the prestigious Architectural Institute of Japan for Design Award in 1999.

Surrounded by beautiful gardens and scenery, the complex contains an indoor swimming area consisting of the main swimming pool (featuring a 90-metre (300ft) long water slide), relaxation pool and fitness pool.

To maintain the pristine appearance of the Glass House, Ritec ClearShield® was specified for all external glass, totalling 5,000m² (54,000 ft²) of the barrel vault roof and exterior walls.

ClearShield® ‘non-stick’, easy-clean glass surface treatment was factory-applied prior to installation. Its main benefits are:

• Resists staining and discolouration
• Always easier to clean and keep clean
• Glass look like new for longer

For more information about Ritec ClearShield, visit www.ritec.co.uk.