Head for heights

Most jobs require rope skills as well as plumbing, electrical and welding abilities.
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The Gulf’s skylines are filled with hard to reach places that require clever solutions to keep them clean and in good order.

Depending on who you talk to, it is either the genius of architects or the ingenuity of engineers that has gifted the Gulf’s skylines with an array of towering icons.

These structures have reached new heights, redefined typologies, taken forms that appear to defy gravity and, in the mean time, created some of the most difficult to reach dust traps on the planet.

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While they usually inspire awe at their openings, someone still has to clean and maintain them.

Making this happen is the job of the FM manager and safe access is at the heart of the issue. The earlier the issue of access is considered, the better the opportunities to make it easy are.

But we don’t live in a design utopia, so sometimes solutions have to be devised well after the problem has been created. Regardless of when it’s thought about, or indeed, whether the problem is one of height, tricky spaces, or just urgency, understanding your access options may make life easier.

Machine…
“Cleaning at great heights is predominantly carried out in the classical way with cradles and climbers, though our focus is increasingly on high-tech cleaning solutions,” said Thomas Moslener, CEO of ABS Group, an FM company.

“Our main issue is safety for clients and workers.... Both are provided by our...façade cleaning robot, which is not dependent on any humans to operate or maintain, and it delivers a consistent cleaning standard.”

ABS expects growth primarily in the area of maintenance, as the lifecycle costs arguments for predictive and preventative maintenance grow stronger.

“This of course means more and more industrial climbers inside and outside the construction,” said Moslener. “We do not rely on standard concepts, but design specific solutions for our customers and their problems.”

This kind of bespoke solution is in part a result of the variety of design we see in the Gulf. It’s a variety that has also led to a growth in another kind of bespoke solution – rope access.