• • • EDITOR’S INTERVIEW • • •


“Obviously, our products are thoroughly tested


when they leave the factory, but we put 100% of our safety related products through extremely stringent testing again here in the UK, so we don’t just rely on the quality control system of the factories.” After 25 years in the hotseat, Mr Dunning said


that what drives him is growing the business. “It’s the buzz that we get when launching a new


product and see it grow and thrive and year-on- year improvement,” he said. Martindale also has an export business and


around 10% of the business comes from outside of the UK. Mr Dunning said: “We’ve had some success in


Australia, for example, and we very much want to grow our export sales. “My biggest frustration at the moment, which I


think will be shared by everybody in the industry, is availability of supply from the Far East which appears to be the combination of component shortages and people physically being locked down and not able to work. There has been an increase in component costs and an enormous increase in shipping costs. The pressures of Covid meant that, in the first period of the pandemic, we were shipping in smaller quantities and flew products in, because we couldn’t wait for the shipping delays.” With its focus on safety firmly in view,


Martindale Electric’s product range has evolved to


a full spectrum offering of what the average electrician would come across in his normal working life. Mr Dunning said: “We built a range of


products under the Martindale brand and within two years, we went from half a dozen products to 48. Then we launched a fuse finder, which was genuinely innovative, a concept that came from North America. This was really the first low- cost fuse finder and that became a very successful product.” If an electrician has got a testing or


measurement problem, the company said it aims to be able to provide them with a solution. As an example of this approach, the business


moved into PAT Testing, which was enabled partly through the acquisition of part of Edgcumbe Instruments, a famous Scottish brand in the PAT market. “Gradually, we bought its entire PAT testing


range, which enabled us to launch some years later our own design of PAT testing, which went from the heavy mains power products to light handheld battery packs,” Mr Dunning said. “Recently PAT Testing has moved to become the


sort of job that tends to get given to people like facilities managers, caretakers or even handymen, who may not necessarily have an electrical qualification. Therefore, we developed lighter, more portable, handheld units which are typically battery powered (although some products still have the ability to run off the mains) and lend themselves to be more user friendly. “Our entry level product is very popular with a


lot of places; schools, in particular, tend to like it; small business owners who may have 100 appliances around the place, might buy their own rather than hiring a contractor, and send their employee on a training course, and they’ll get their money back reasonably quickly doing it in-house.” What some people don’t realise is that they


should be doing a risk assessment, as part of PAT testing. Mr Dunning said: “We back up our PAT testing


product offering with a range of information about how to do PAT testing, a list of faults to watch out


electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk


for training materials that even if people don’t come on the training course, they can learn from them. “We really are all about keeping people safe. If


people adopt sensible working practices around electricity, use the right equipment and are careful, then there’s no reason for anybody to be killed working with electricity.”


Stay ALIVE


Mr Dunning explained how remembering a simple acronym can help safeguard workers, reduce potential liability and ultimately save lives. He said: “In an ongoing bid to safeguard


workplaces, factories and industrial premises and protect the lives of anyone working on or near an electrical installation, Martindale has created a new, simplified version of its more extensive and detailed process in the hope that its memorable acronym – ALIVE – will help to prevent injuries and save lives.” The five fail-proof steps to safe isolation are:


A – Approved kit Before starting, make sure your equipment meets all legal safety standards (BS EN61243- 3);


L – Lock out Identify the point of isolation – lock it off – and place warning tags onto the equipment;


I – Initial Prove Test your voltage indicator against the proving unit to make sure that it’s working properly;


V – Voltage test Use your voltage indicator to confirm that there are no dangerous voltages in the circuit you are about to work on; and


E – Ensure Prove and re-test the voltage indicator against the proving unit to ensure it is working, before you start working on the circuit.


ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • APRIL 2022 13


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