Role in critical research

One of Cancer Research UK's ABRASIVE MIXTURE laboratories - Clare Hall at South Mimms - is devoted to understanding the basic biology of cancers.To ensure the validity of its research experiments, it is necessary for them to be carried out using different grades of water. Culligan has provided a series of treatment options.

Water is softened to remove hardness salts. It passes through a reverse osmosis unit to remove 98% of the dissolved solids, then point of use devices deliver the water quality required for individual laboratory use.

The first water softener was installed by Culligan in 1987 and was upgraded and expanded in 2000. A second unit increased capacity but, by the end of 2010, water use had increased and further softening capacity was needed.

Maintenance engineer Mark Kitchenham contacted Culligan and after a detailed inspection it was agreed that a third water softener was required in addition to replacing the original unit.

By now, softened water was required at all times and it was crucial that there was no interruption to supply.

A new Culligan HiFlo 3 duplex was installed before the original unit was removed and replaced with a second HiFlo3 duplex. In addition, 4in pipework was installed and improvements made to the bulk salt saturator system. Work was completed in 14 days without any interruption to the softened water supply.