March 23, 2021 Reanne Duffy

Not many companies can lift and shift a substation. Those who can need to look the part…

We tend to take for granted, that lights come on when we flick a switch and that electricity is pretty much always there to do the jobs we need it to do, when we need them done. Behind that simple expectation though is the considerable infrastructure that makes it happen. Like any other hardware, the infrastructure comprising national electrical distribution has a finite life and bits of it need, from time to time, to be taken out of commission. Safely.

There are very few companies in the UK capable of taking away a transformer unit that might weigh as much as 700 tons. It's not surprising therefore, that the few who can do the job, operate in a field of deep specialisation. Among them - Barnsley based C.K. Beckett.

The phone starts ringing at C.K. Beckett when somebody has a need to undertake a job on the magnitude of a transformer and substation dismantling. With potentially in excess of half a million kg to lift and shift, transport is a major part of any project’s focus. 

The phone started ringing recently at Barnsley based Turner Signs, because C.K. Beckett wanted its brand overhauled and its vehicles radiating a new identity. C.K. Beckett came to Turner Signs with a very relaxed brief. ‘Free reign’ might better describe it. 

The first vehicle to be subject to whatever design evolved was to be one of the new shaped Transits. It's one of the smartest looking utility vehicles on the road and C.K. Beckett’s looked great from the rubber up. Turner Signs’ livery needed to build on that, advance its clients identity, and be portable, ultimately, to a large fleet.

The team at Turner Signs produced a design that reflects the industrial calibre of the services its client delivers. The design draws upon powerful contrasts in colour, scale and all-angles legibility.

As implemented on the Transit, the livery comprises a 3/4 wrap to the rear portion of the vehicle. The coverage ignores the limits of panel boundaries and confidently spans gaps, tracks, recesses and moulding detail. Viewed from a few strides off, the client’s identity is in no doubt at all. Viewed from a few inches, Turner Signs’ expertise in printing and application isn't in doubt either. It's a brilliant work.

The new livery was printed on Metamark’s next-generation premium cast wrapping film MetaCast MDC. The film was protected by the product’s matching cast laminate and the result produced benefits from the assembly’s tolerance of high ink-loading and elongation. It the expert hands of Turner Signs application specialist, the result looks like the product of extended practice rather than the one-off it is at the moment. 

Deep specialisation ensures that C. K. Beckett operates in a class that only a very few companies can claims as a competence. Thanks to some wonderful work by Turner Signs, its fleet is absolutely in a class of its own.