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News
December 2004, 
would like to congratulate Axel Enthoven (President of Enthoven Associates
(EADC)) for winning the prestigious 2004 Henry van de Velde Award for
Career. EADC is currently the most successful and the longest-standing
design agency in Flanders. It is commonly stated that “their designs
change our view of the world”! EADC has worked with
for many years on products now in international distribution and have
more recently designed an exciting new
product to be launched at ISH 2005 in Frankfurt. ’s
new state-of-the-art tradeshow booth to be unveiled at ISH 2005 is also
the result of EADC’s superb design expertise. In addition to the
professional relationship, Axel Enthoven has also been a good friend
to the owners of
for many years.
 
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December 2004, following months of close work between
and the Australian national training provider TAFE, the National Plumbing
Apprentice Training Module for the correct use of Air Admittance Valves
has been successfully completed. This new -driven
training program will be rolled out initially throughout the state of
New South Wales (NSW). The Module II training program was introduced
by David Griffiths, Area Manager NSW & ACT for
Australia (see photograph), to NSW plumbing teachers who will use the
module in their training of all the apprentice plumbers in the state.
TAFE will also be adopting this training module nationally. Special
thanks goes to Marc Williams, Area Manager Victoria, SA and TAS for
Australia and the staff of the TAFE Gymea campus Plumbing Department
for their development of this program.
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November 10, 2004 - Taipei,
products are now formally available in Taiwan. A great launch event
was superbly organized by Metropole ('s
distributor for Taiwan). The afternoon seminar was held at the National
Taiwan University, where more than 100
specialists in all fields participated. The audience was especially
impressed by Heriot-Watt University's study of "Active Pressure
Control", presented by 's
Technical Manager (Steven White). The study underlines the way
is approaching the market - not only by promoting individual products,
but by offering a complete solution package for drainage venting.
The pictures show: (1) the decorated hall; (2) the packed auditorium;
and (3) From left to right, Eric Hsieh (President of Metropole), Franz
Arnold (President of
Group), Prof. Cheng-li Cheng (Chairman of the Department of Architecture
of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology) and Lu
Wen-Hung (Associate Researcher of the National Taiwan University of
Science and Technology).
 
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November 9, 2004 – Hong Kong, The Polytechnic University
is carrying out interesting research in the drainage area.
supports this research by providing AAVs, P.A.P.A.s and technical input.
The picture, taken in front of the impressive test rig shows, from left
to right, Carlos Chan (Director of
China), Steve White (Technical Manager of ),
Daniel W.T. Chan (Associate Professor of the Department of Building
Services Engineering), Franz Arnold (President of
Group) and Ir. Albert W.K. Kwok (Senior Engineer Building & Construction).
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November 2004, Mitre 10 - one of the biggest hardware retailers
in Australasia - now carries a full range of
products in their new chain of MEGA stores opening throughout Australia.
A leap up from the standard neighbourhood store, the Mega chain is more
trade orientated than usual. The management took the wise decision to
stock solely the quality brand that is becoming the generic word for
Air Admittance Valves – !
To find your local Mitre 10 MEGA store click here.
 
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November 2004, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, one of the leading
public hospitals in Australia, has been fully vented with the
Maxi-Vents as part of the building’s 7-storey upward extension.
A helipad was also built on the roof upon completion. It was necessary
for all this work to be carried out with fully operational wards and
administration in the lower floors below the ongoing construction! Consequently,
the vertical plumbing stack of the operational sections had to be extended
floor-by-floor with the construction. Normally this would have meant
that construction workers would have had to work with open vent pipes
from the operational floors, as closing them off would have affected
the wards below. However, the contractors sought advice from
Australia and the solution was to utilize
Maxi-Vents for the stack venting capabilities (this was prior to the
allowance for any stack venting in Victoria, but special permission
was granted for this job). The use of the
Maxi-Vents allowed the plumbing stacks to operate while letting the
construction workers do their job without suffering the gasses from
open sewer vents. It was later discovered that the same Maxi-Vents had
been attached and reattached as the building went upwards – a
true testament to the ruggedness as well as the abilities of the
Maxi-Vent!
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November 2004, Following the wholly successful installation
of the
products for the complete venting of Tower 4 of the Yarra Edge project,
they are now being exclusively fitted in the remainder of Tower 5 of
the same project. The contractor of this prestigious building in Melbourne,
Australia, was originally driven by economy rather than quality –
the installation of a competitor’s cheaper Air Admittance Valves
(AAVs) resulted in failures with a costly callback impact for the contractor
– this made him realise that the original AAV’s were not
such a bargain after all! Now, being aware of the
lifetime warranty and the ease of correct installation of the trusted
Mini-Vents, the contractor is replacing all of the failed cheaper AAV’s
with
AAV’s – knowing that quality will save money in the long-term!
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November 2004, The first building in Melbourne, Australia,
to be built and certified to the new Six-Star Environmental standard
will be CH2 (Council House 2) - the new home of the administrative staff
of Melbourne City Council. This building will utilize rainwater and
recycle its own water, as well as draw additional waste water from the
main sewer and treat that for reuse. It will also use recycled and recyclable
materials wherever possible. Its aspect has been designed to utilize
sunlight for heating and light, together with many other innovative
ideas to keep its environmental “footprint” as light as
possible.
Air Admittance Valves have been specified for use throughout this project
for sanitary waste venting in order to minimize the use of PVC and other
piping. The
lifetime warranty was also a comforting factor for the contractors on
such a cutting edge project.
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October 2004,
Tec-Vents were installed in an aged care facility under construction
on the highly treed outer fringes of Melbourne, Australia. The new Bushfire
Building Code in the State of Victoria stipulates that constructions
built in fire-risk areas have to take into allowance the possibility
of flying embers entering buildings through openings in the roof (such
as open vent pipes) and sparking internal materials. Any external protrusions
must also be of a fire retardant material. The enquiry regarding the
solution for this bushfire resistant requirement was received by
Australia prior to the national release of this innovative product in
Australia and demonstrates the product’s suitability for residential
projects as well as its main market within the industrial sector –
the
Tec-Vent is made of a flame retardant material that is also UV resistant.
In this installation, the Tec-Vents were fitted to 50mm copper (instead
of the usual PVC) open vent pipes to make the building conform to the
new regulations.
 
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October 2004, Boston, USA, again exhibited at ISH North America. The Inc. team (from left to right: Pat O'Neal, Greg Paquin and Fabio Castellani) answered the questions of visitors from all over the USA, Canada and Mexico. The show took place in the impressive new Boston convention centre. Special interest was created by the new specialist products, including the P.A.P.A. and Tec-Vent.
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September 2004, Representatives from Higgins Agencies, ’s Western Australia Agent, visited ’s Australian Head Office in Sydney.
Pictured from left to right are: Robert Dalrymple (recently appointed Business Development Manager of Higgins Agencies), Peter Higgins (Director of Higgins Agencies), and David Griffiths (Area Manager NSW & ACT for Australia).
This was Peter's first visit to the Sydney office and a great opportunity to introduce Robert to 's Sydney team. Both were impressed with the Sydney facility and Robert was given a presentation on 's industry-leading drainage venting technology.
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September 2004, The 2004 Australian National Plumbing Forum was held at the Sheraton Perth Hotel, Perth, West Australia from 1 to 4 September 2004.
Year 2004 marks the 50th anniversary for the "Forum" - this name was chosen by the organisers as it readily describes the convention as a place for interaction and discussion of plumbing in all its senses by those associated with plumbing. Delegates were drawn from all individual and stakeholder groups associated with plumbing.
The organisers stated that "this forum is not your normal convention were you sit back and are entertained by professional speakers, showing off their latest presentation gadgetry whilst presenting their own ideas or products - but it's a truly interactive forum designed to achieve real outcomes as the consensus of plumbing professionals from the wider plumbing fraternity."
In this sense, delegates took the opportunity to discuss the range of products, which provide a greatly simplified solution to drainage venting.
Higgins Agencies was appointed as Agent for products in Western Australia in March 2003. Their director, Peter Higgins, is shown in the photograph demonstrating the operation of the Mini-Vent.
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August 2004, Monash University – one of the leading higher
education establishments in Australia – recently upgraded the
chemical research labs at its Melbourne Campus. As part of this
upgrade, the drainage system had to be completely overhauled. In
accordance with changes to the Victorian State plumbing regulations,
a new “Vulcathene” piping system was installed in conjunction with
Chem-Vent Air Admittance Valves (AAVs).
“Being specified for all venting requirements in this prestigious
project is a great honour, as well as a testament to the unmatched
quality of our products” says Marc Williams, area manager at
Australia.
Following a meeting between
and the Vulcathene
distributor,
AAVs are now the only product recommended for
use in Vulcathene installations.
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July 2004, Studor China and their Hong Kong distributor Splendor
Water Fittings Ltd held a joint seminar with the Hong Kong Plumbing
General Union to educate the plumbing community about the advantages
of ’s
advanced venting technologies. The 100 local licenced plumbers who attended
were given the opportunity to win
Mini-Vents by correctly answering questions regarding the
products.
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June 2004, Studor China displayed at the Asian Building Technologies
Exhibition in Hong Kong from the 5th to 19th June. Steven White (Technical
Manager) visited HK to support the Studor China team and to present
a technical introduction of the
systems to some of the leading engineers in HK. The show was very well
attended, with the majority of attendees being from HK itself. There
was a great interest in the technologies
provides, as these are especially suited to vent the plumbing drainage
systems of high rise buildings.
products are used to solve existing problems, as well as being used
in new projects to maintain the integrity of the water trap seals, providing
a safe building drainage system.
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June 2004, Reece Plumbing Centres, the leading plumbing supply company
in Australia, took advantage of
Australia’s active participation in Designbuild 2004
to educate the Victorian plumbing fraternity on their range of Premi-Aire
AAVs, made exclusively for Reece by .
Reece and
staff provided information about their unique AAV technology to the
show’s many visitors – many of whom were unaware of the significant
benefits and savings that can be achieved by incorporating 's
intelligent valves in conventional plumbing drainage systems. Marc Williams,
Area Manager, declared the day a great success.
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June 2004, Following the success of the Designbuild trade show in
Melbourne (Australia) in previous years,
attended this year’s event to educate industry professionals about the
advantages of Air Admittance Valve (AAV) technology. A wide range of
visitors - hydraulic engineers as well as consultants, plumbers and
many other experts took the time to visit 's
stand to catch up with the latest changes and products in the field
of AAVs. Steven White, Technical Manager at ,
was particularly impressed with the calibre and interest of those who
visited the
booth: "The fact that so many industry professionals were interested
in our products shows that the benefits of AAV technology are becoming
more widely recognised by the experts who lead their fields".
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June 2004, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are hotbeds of
economic expansion - a fact reflected in prospering construction
markets. And where construction takes place,
's
AAV technology is in demand. As a result, the markets in China, Hong
Kong and - most recently - Taiwan have grown to play a key strategic
role for the activities of Studor in Asia.
To support the growth of the Asian markets, Studor Ventech
Limited and its Hong Kong partner Splendor Water Fittings Limited
have entered a joint venture to set up Studor (China) Limited. This
newly formed company will support the China, Hong Kong and Taiwan
markets. "Studor AAV technology is already used in some of the
world's most prestigious buildings, and establishing Studor China is
an exciting further step on the road of
's
continued success" says Franz Arnold,
Group President.
The company can be reached as follows:
Studor (China) Limited
Room 901-5&7, Block 2
Yip On Ind. Bldg.
1, Wang Hoi Road
Kowloon Bay
HKSAR
Tel. +852 233 125 26
Fax +852 233 139 20
china@studor.net
The key members of staff are:
Carlos Chan (Executive Director) Alan Lai (Manager) Elena Choi
(Office Manager) Franz Arnold (Director – President of Studor Group)
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June 2004, As part of their commitment to the Asian market,
STUDOR has appointed Metropole Industrial Co. as distributor for
Taiwan. To order STUDOR technology directly within Taiwan, please
contact:
Metropole Industrial Co, Ltd.
168 Fu Hsing N. Rd.
Taipei
Taiwan
Tel.
+886 (2) 27170007
Fax. +886 (2) 27181795
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June 2004, taking advantage of the visit to Australia of Steven
White (from Studor in the UK) and Nelson Palmer (Studor New Zealand)
for DesignBuild 2004 in Melbourne, Marc Williams (Studor Australia)
organised a visit to the Eureka Tower. Accompanied by Dave Griffiths
from Studor in Sydney, everybody was very impressed by the macro
engineering done within this impressive project. Andy Chugg from
C.L.G. gave the Studor team a comprehensive tour through the
building, which included seeing some million dollar apartments with
amazing views over Port Phillip Bay.
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June 2004,
is pleased to announce Shun Yi Sdn. Bhd. as
their new distributor for Malaysia. Shun Yi provides direct project
supply of materials for plumbing products. For more information
please contact Kelly Tan on tel: +60 3 6157 2288 / fax: +60 3 6157
1766 / email: shunyi@tm.net.my,
or visit Shun Yi’s website
www.shunyi.com.my.
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June 2004, any tradesman knows that there will be situations
on jobs where s/he will have to be creative. As the Eureka Tower,
the world’s tallest residential building, crawls it way skyward in
Melbourne Australia, by its very nature it creates opportunities for
ingenuity. Andy Chugg, Project Manager for C.L. Godfrey (the
plumbing contractor for the job), had to ventilate stacks on a
temporary basis to allow operation of the floors beneath those being
built – at that time traditional stack venting was not allowed.
Using an inventive approach, Andy designed and built manifolds from
250mm PVC pipe using 4 no.
Premi-Aire 100 AAVs in series.
This idea not only worked, it worked very well, with each of the
manifolds having a combined airflow of 128 litres per second,
venting 25 floors. Local regulations have now changed and this idea
is now being considered to vent all the stacks in this project,
which will save many metres of expensive 300mm and 250mm cast iron
pipe.
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June 2004, 
Maxi-Vents were installed in the Chongqing Jianbei Airport in the
North-East of Chengdo City, Sichuan Province while being
reconstructed and expanded to be the largest aviation hub in the
Central and Western region of China.
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March 2004, Wavin SpA ('s distributor for Italy)
exhibited at Mostra Convegno Expocomfort 2004, which was held from 2
to 6 March. The increased number of participants to more than
145,000 visitors from 132 different countries demonstrates the
importance of this exhibition.
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March 2004, ,
in partnership with Nan Wah Marketing PTE LTD
('s distributor for
Singapore), provided a technical presentation and update of the Los
Angeles SARS symposium to the leading building engineering firms in
Singapore. The event was hosted at the Spring Singapore Training
Facilities and successfully provided the engineering community with
a full understanding of alternative methods of venting the building
drainage systems in Singapore.
2003.jpg)
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February 2004, in Houston, Texas, USA, NASA reports that Pat
O'Neal (Technical Director of Studor Inc.) was seen in space. He is
apparently looking out for new territories to sell Air Admittance
Valves.
2004.jpg)
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February 2004, was proud to have won the specification for
their AAVs to be installed in the refurbishment of the world-famous
Opera House in Sydney which was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth
II on 20 October 1973.
Mini- and Maxi-Vents will be installed
as part of the refurbishment. The impressive Sydney Opera House is
perfectly situated at the tip of Bennelong Point, fronting Sydney
Harbour and is overlooked by the great Sydney Harbour Bridge.
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February 2004, the Berlaymont Building located in the very
centre of the European Quarter in Brussels - home of the European
Commission from 1967 to 1991 - has undergone a total refurbishment
following the removal of asbestos. Over a thousand Mini-Vents
(Mini-KNITS) and Maxi-Vents (KNITS II) were installed as part of the
refurbishment. On 13 floors and over 200,000 m² the four wings could
house 3,000 officials, 14 meeting rooms with a total capacity of 1,040
people, conference rooms, a TV studio, a cafeteria and restaurant,
shops, warehouses and over 1,200 underground parking spaces with
connections to the road tunnels, pedestrian passages, the metro and railway.
2004.jpg)
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