Canterbury University Aid On Singapore Research Unit

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29872, 12 July 1962, Page 14

Canterbury University Aid On Singapore Research Unit

The Singapore Industrial Research . Unit being presented under the Colombo Plan by the New Zealand Government will be housed in a new building of 13,000 sq. ft. adjoining the Polytechnic Institute. Mr T. R. Pollard, director of the Canterbury University Industrial Development Department, proposed the scheme after an initial Colombo Plan visit, arranged for the training of key staff last year in New Zealand, and returned from a third trip yesterday after planning the building and supervising its construction. The reinforced concrete structure, close to the waterfront, has a saw-tooth roof incorporating special ventilation features to counteract the heat.

The building was being provided by the Singapore Government and its architectural branch had worked exceedingly fast to speed the project, Mr Pollard said. His drawings of the lay-out for offices, laboratories, and workshops had quickly been converted to specifications, a contractor was chosen without recourse to tenders, and, when the shell was up, detailed plans were supplied as work progressed. Mf Pollard said there had been careful integration of air-condition-ing, lighting and power services so that the structural work would be finished by October. Mr Pollard included in his design features of which he has long dreamed for his own department. An S-shaped end of the building permits a

five-ton truck to drive right in. Floors strengthened for this purpose will also carry a heavy dynamic balancing machine, crack-testing apparatus, an isotope structure for gamma ray examination of castings, and a heavy metals store.

This area will be served by a hydraulic hoist and crane. The isotope structure has nine-inch concrete walls as a safeguard against lethal radiation. The concrete and steel shot mixture of these floors will carry loads up to 5001 b a square foot.

Big rooms have been provided for machine tools, mechanical and electrical test

apparatus, and electric furnaces.

The electronics, metallurgical, and chemical laboratories will each be 500 sq. ft. There is a temperature-controlled standardisation room with acoustically-insulated walls. Staff rooms and library occupy 2500 sq. ft All are air-conditioned. Mr Pollard was delighted at the inclusion of a chemical engineering section which will carry out work on ceramics, calcium carbide, storage batteries, tannic extracts, and related topics. An extra 2200 sq. ft. was being provided for this section which would have two chemical engineers and one or two chemists, he said. Seventy-five per cent, of the equipment, much of it designed and built in the Canterbury University workshops, has arrived and will be installed in about three months. Optical equipment worth £3OOO had been provided for the unit by the Singapore Polytechnic. Apart from expensive cameras there was a metallurgical microscope with photographic and projection equipment attached and electronic exposure control. It was the finest he had seen. Miss M. Koh (secretary) and Messrs Lim Yew Chye and Ng Chee Haw (technicians), who had special training in Christchurch last year, are now hard at work organising for the opening of the unit and other staff is being appointed by the Singapore Government. Mr Pollard said he expected the unit to be in full operation next year. “This unit will be an outstanding industrial research unit and a fine example of New Zealand's Colombo Plan aid,” he said.