TROPHEX

www.trophex.com

In a conversation on Twitter the other morning, following my bewilderment at yet again being overlooked for a BAFTA nomination, @mangowe drew my attention to the world of trophy manufacture.

It's surprisingly difficult to find out much about the trophy industry. Not because any conscious secrecy on their part, but just because Googling various combinations of the words "awards" and "manufacturing" and "trophies" and "design" tends just to bring up awards for manufacturing or trophies for design.

There are lots of companies which supply awards, but they're all quite small, and I don't know - don't get me wrong, I'd be pleased to win ANY award - but if I found out my eg Britain's Loveliest Man award had been bought from a company called Better Trophies Better Prices ("If you're looking for better trophies at better prices you've found them!"), I wouldn't be so thrilled.

Anyway, Trophex. You might be thinking "Why should attend?" Well, as the Trophex website explains:

Trophex is the dedicated trophy, award and personalisation exhibition in the UK.

The show is free to attend and there’s free parking.

Well, those are quite convincing reasons.

Looks like news is a bit slow, with the next Trophex show not until January. Reports of the 2009 show sound positive though:

As always Trophex is very well attended and Sunday especially saw a vast number of trophy retailers visit the show. Martin Lakin from Timbertown Trophies in Woodville near Burton-on-Trent has only missed one Trophex in the last 10 years. He regularly visits the show to see the new range of products that are coming out. The show is also a great opportunity to find new areas to expand his business into, 70% of which is in motor racing, so he combines his visit to Trophex with a visit to the Autosport International exhibition which takes place at the NEC Birmingham at the same time.

I recognise this point is slightly weakened by the fact that I've copied and pasted this paragraph, but why would anyone, other than possibly Martin Lakin's wife, be interested in any of that?

Working in the trophy industry means always being the bridesmaid and never the bride. There doesn't appear to be a trophy designer of the year award. There's no trophy manufacturer of the year. I guess this is just because they could never figure out who should design the award. You'd get yourself into one of those strange loops that don't make sense, like the plot of the first Terminator film or something.

I think this is possibly the greatest title for a technical document ever.

BRITISH TOILET ASSOCIATION

www.britloos.co.uk

Pity the poor public toilet. Often characterised as seedy, filthy places frequented by junkies and Stedman Pearson from Five Star. Even those people using public toilets for legitimate reasons are going to the toilet in them. The public toilet needs a voice. Thankfully, the British Toilet Association is here, "campaigning for better public toilets for all" and acting as "the catalyst for change in the pursuit of standards of excellence in all areas of public toilet provision and management".



Were Britain's public toilets really once the envy of the world? When was that? Whose public toilets are the envy of the world now? Google isn't much help.

Membership of the BTA is open to everyone, from local authorities and commercial organisations to individuals. So, if you are really obsessed with toilets and you've got £46 to spare, why not fill out this form and become a member? Your membership fees will help the BTA meet its objectives:

To focus attention on issues relating to the provision of public or ‘away from home’ toilets
To campaign for appropriate legislation relating to the provision of public toilets by Local Authorities
To campaign for high standards of public or ‘away from home’ toilets in all areas, including municipal locations, health, education, transport, leisure, hospitality and retail establishments
To campaign for the provision of an adequate number of facilities for women, in relation to the number of facilities provided for men.
To campaign for adequate facilities for specialist user groups, such as wheelchair users, the elderly, babies and young children and people with medical conditions
To campaign for the provision of secure, fully attended public toilet facilities, with extended opening hours.
To campaign for the eradication of all types of social misuse and vandalism in public toilets
To provide a forum for public toilet providers, contractors, suppliers and users to share concerns and ideas and communicate best practices
To provide consultancy and information services to Association members on a range of relevant subjects
To establish links with similar Toilet Associations in other countries

As a member, you'll also receive a discounted rate for the BTA's consultation service. I wonder if they'd come round to my house to discuss current standards of provision, future strategy and issues relevant to design, layout, product and service needs, security and maintenance - as well as marketing or revenue generating opportunities. I can't help but feel that my bathroom at home doesn't generate as much revenue as it could. Maybe I could install a turnstile and charge myself 30p everytime I use it.

It's important to ensure standards are maintained in "away from home" toilet provision and to celebrate those facilities which exceed expectations. For this reason, the BTA promotes the Loo Of The Year Awards. Nominations are currently open for the 2009 awards, so if you're out and about and spot an exceptional toilet, call the Loo Of The Year 24-hour hotline on 01403 25877. Each nominated toilet will receive a visit from a Loo Of The Year judge and will be assessed according to the following criteria:

SIGNAGE AND COMMUNICATION
- Directional signage (where applicable)
- External building signage (where applicable)
- Internal customer communication signage
DÉCOR AND MAINTENANCE
- State of repair
- internal and external (if applicable)
FIXTURES AND FITTINGS PROVISION
- Sanitary fittings, taps, locks, hooks etc.
CLEANLINESS
- Walls and ceilings
- Floor areas
- Fixtures and fittings - basins, bowls, seats, taps etc.
HYGIENE EQUIPMENT
- Hand washing
- Hand drying
- Toilet tissue
- Sanitary product disposal
AIR QUALITY
- Ventilation, drainage smells etc.
EXTRAS
- Added value enhancement - vending, flowers etc.
SECURITY
- Lighting, entrances, external areas (if applicable)
ACCESSIBLE FACILITIES
- Proper provision for both sexes or a unisex facility
CHANGING FACILITIES
- Proper provision for both sexes or a unisex

That's very detailed, isn't it?

Toilets receiving more than three stars will be given a Loo Of The Year grading certificate. This certification process is essential to avoid unscrupulous toilet providers hyping their facilities with no evidence to back up their claims:



I saw that sign in Berlin. I didn't use the toilet in the end, as I wanted to retain the mystery and thought the reality might be a let down. It's like that thing they say about how you should never meet your heroes. Well, it's like that thing they say about how you should never meet your heroes if your hero is a toilet.

BRITISH PLASTICS FEDERATION

www.bpf.co.uk

When I used to get the train from Worcester Park to Waterloo, if you looked out of the window just before Raynes Park, you could see a factory which had a huge sign saying MANUPLASTICS. It's gone now. The company still exists, but they've moved to a new factory in South Wimbledon. That's a bit of a shame because I loved seeing that factory. "Manuplastics" is such a brilliant word.

I like plastic.



The British Plastics Federation relaunched their website quite recently. I don't know what their old site looked like because I only heard of the British Plastics Federation about half an hour ago. Their new website looks quite nice though.

There's a picture of all different uses of plastic, look:



Some of them are obvious. Plastic bottles and crates and flasks and things. Do they make planes out of plastic? And what are those other pictures? OK, there's a canoe, fair enough. And is that some hosing at the bottom under the crates? I don't know what any of these other things are. But that just goes to show how versatile plastic is. It can be used to make things you can't even recognise. Are those rawl plugs next to the hose to the left? Possibly. I didn't realise Rawlplug is actually a brand name.

When they relaunched the new BPF website, they included two new tools, Plastipedia, "the world's largest on-line plastics encyclopedia", and Plastbook, a social networking site where plastics professionals can "exchange experience, answer plastics related questions and acquire sales leads". Including these two tools was a shrewd move, and resulted in widespread publicity with mentions in Plastics And Rubbers Weekly and Glazine, the weekly email news for the glass, glazing & fenestration industries.

If you're interested in learning more about the history of plastics, the BPF have produced this educational video:



The guy doing the voiceover sounds like a cross between Terry Jones and that bloke on Saturday Kitchen who picks the wine and looks like Boris Johnson. The bit from about 2:35 to 3:45 is great. It's taken from a film by Alan Pendry called "The Shape Of Plastics" (you can watch parts one and two on the BPF Youtube channel).

There's something a little tragic about that Shape Of Plastics film. Plastic doesn't have a particularly good reputation anymore, because of its environmental impact and because it's perceived as being disposable and inauthentic, flimsy and lightweight (although I quite like all those characteristics). In that video though, plastic is seen as something cool, with that sort of hip jazz soundtrack and the slightly surreal pink tint. In the sixties, plastic was full of potential, "so many ways to make so many things". All that Eero Aarnio furniture and space-age plastic clothing. Oh yeah, it looks funny now, but at least the people suggesting this stuff believed progress, they believed in something, even if what they believed in was this. What do you believe in? Lolcats?

All of the words associated with manufacturing plastics sound brilliant:

1) Processing Thermoplastics
1.1 Blown Film
1.2 Extrusion Blow Moulding
1.3 Extrusion Profiles & Sheet
1.4 Injection Blow Moulding
1.5 Injection Moulding
1.6 Injection Moulding (Gas Assisted)
1.7 Injection Stretch Blow Moulding
1.8 Insert Moulding
1.9 Machining of Plastics
1.10 Moulding Expanded Polypropylene (EPP)
1.11 Moulding Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)
1.12 Process Cooling
1.13 Rotational Moulding
1.14 Structural Foam
1.15 Thermoforming
1.16 Vacuum Forming
1.17 Other Extrusion Processes

2) Processing Thermosets
2.1 Pultrusion
2.2 Resin Transfer Moulding
2.3 SMC / DMC Moulding
2.4 Other GRP Moulding Techniques

3) Secondary Processing / Finishing
3.1 Welding
3.2 Product Decoration

At school, we had a small vacuum former - possibly a Compac Mini or something similar anyway. Nothing as impressive as any of the stuff at the new Manuplastics factory, that's for sure.

BRITISH AUTOMATION AND ROBOT ASSOCIATION

www.bara.org.uk

The British Automation and Robot Association apparently used to be called the British Robot Association. The British Robot Association sounds fantastic, so you wonder why they'd change their name. I'm guessing it's because they realised their initials were BRA and they thought that possibly people wouldn't take them very seriously. What a shame. British Robot Association sounds brilliant. "Automation" is a good word too though. Was there ever a band called Automation? There must have been. I even know what they sound like even though they possibly don't exist.



Good, they've got a picture of a robot on the first page of their website. That's what you want from BRA BARA. It's even a slightly cute robot! At least its face is slightly cute, those spindly arms and legs are a bit scary. "One of the first Humanoid Robots in Britain" is a good way to start a story, isn't it?

I'm not entirely sure how you're supposed to use the website, because there's a menu bar along the top and a quick links menu down the side and they both seem more or less the same. News and Recent News both link to the same page. As do Information and Encyclopedia, and Membership and Join BRA BARA. But who cares? Their newsletter is called QUARTERMATION! They can build ROBOTS! Who am I to criticise these boffins? I like Mike Wilson's email address.

I don't quite understand though. There's a list of applications robots can be used for:

Handling Operations/Moulding/Machine Tending
Arc/Spot/Gas/Laser Welding
Dispensing/Painting/Sealing/Gluing
Loading/Unloading
Cutting/Grinding/Polishing
Laser/Water Jet Cutting
Assembling
Palletising/Packaging
Measurement/Inspection/Testing
Bio-Chemistry and Hazardous Applications

They've missed a few, surely? How about travelling through time to assassinate the woman whose future son would lead a resistance against the machines? Surely you'd use robots for that. And also, surely you'd use a robot to contact Obi-Wan Kenobi and to carry the plans for the Death Star so that the Rebel Alliance is able to destroy it? Actually, there's a bit more detail in this document, maybe they mention the time travelling assassin/contacting Obi-Wan stuff there:

Why Use Robots? When Not to Use Robots, Complexity of Tasks for Robots, Communications, Robot Structures and Their Characteristics, Power Sources, Grippers / End Effectors, Programming Methods, Maintenance Issues, Safety and The Future for Robots.

That document is eighteen pages long. Sod that.

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF RETAIL NEWSAGENTS

www.nfrnonline.com

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents. Aren't all newsagents retail newsagents? What other sort of newsagents are there? Do you get wholesaler newsagents? I guess you must do. I've never really considered that before, but the newsagents must get their papers and magazines from somewhere, I suppose. OK, wholesaler newsagents can fuck right off. This federation is for retail newsagents only.



Simple, almost boring, website design. I'm a little bit surprised they didn't go with a sort of newspapery look, but maybe that would have looked rubbish, so actually, well done, NFRN. As agents of news, it's not too surprising that they have a news section on the front page. The top story there, with the catchy headline CADBURY AIMS TO HIT THE MARK WITH ON PACK PROMOTION had, at the time of writing, "been read 2 times", although it was only posted today. The second story, about an uplift in sales of roll your own (RYO) tobacco in Wales has been read an impressive 21 times in three days (though possibly two or three of those were me).

The NFRN has ten key objectives:

To assist, practically support and encourage members in running financially successful businesses.
To provide value to members through relevant advice, support, benefits and legal assistance.
To provide pastoral care to members
To represent members interests and promote positive legislation and trading conditions.
To provide training and development to both members and staff to meet the changing needs off the marketplace.
To provide leadership through the effective involvement and communication with members.
To grow and develop Federation membership.
To maintain a structure relevant to the needs of members in a changing marketplace.
To maximise the external profile of the Federation to the benefit of the organisation and its members.
To maintain a sound financial base to meet the Federations' objectives.

Provide pastoral care? OK. Also, does it make sense that one of the ten key objectives is to maintain a sound financial base to meet the ten key objectives? Doesn't that mean that really they've only got nine key objectives. Come on, NFRN, get one more key objective! They could borrow one from the British Sandwich Association. "To provide a source of support and information for members". There you go.

Objectives are one thing, but the NFRN also offers practical advice to its members, such as information on getting the basics of your shop right. The checklist doesn't seem all that helpful though:

Your key categories
Assessing your shop
Understanding your area
Stocking the right lines
Merchandising to maximise sales
Getting the right shop layout
Have you got the right equipment
Training for you and your staff
Operating systems
Working with suppliers

There's no real information there. "Stocking the right lines", well obviously that's important but how do I know what the right lines are? "Have you got the right equipment?" I don't know! I don't know what equipment you need! A till, obviously. An Oyster top-up machine. One of those Paypoint things. Some fridges, one of those freezers for icecreams. What other equipment is there? One of those machines outside which sell gobstoppers and little toys in plastic balls. Oh, a lottery machine. Anything else? I think that's everything.

Much of the content is restricted to members only, which is a shame, so I can't see what they have to say about fixtures and fittings, shop design or the increasing importance of chilled and frozen foods. Is it really true that 31% of the population keep a stock of lager at home? They say "only 31%", that looks a bit high to me, but what do I know? Blimey, it's £4.50 A WEEK to join the NFRN! Plus VAT! The NFRN magazine better be good.

The comedian, writer, musician and philanthropist Tony Hawks presented the awards at the fifth annual NFRN awards in October. Ian Scott sounds like a deserving winner of the News Deliverer of the Year Award after rescuing two pensioners from a burning house. Congratulations, Ian Scott! I wonder how they pick the winners in other years though. Do they just hope that at some point during the year, a paperboy somewhere in the country will save someone from something.

I bet Ian Scott started that fire just to secure the NFRN News Deliverer of the Year Award. I know your game, Ian Scott, you can't fool me.

BRITISH SANDWICH ASSOCIATION

www.sandwich.org.uk

There's some back story as to why I looked at this website originally which I won't go into here, mainly because it's of no interest to anyone, but I'm going to start this pointless trade associations blog project with the British Sandwich Association because it has many of the key qualities of a good trade association website and it was while I was looking at it that I realised how much I like these sites.

Firstly, the URL is nice and basic. www.sandwich.org.uk. Excellent. Also, the site itself is really simple and slightly unattractive. This is good. Flash animations have no place on a trade website, you just want to be able to access the information quickly and easily.



I like the advert on the side there. Where better for The Sauce Company to advertise than on the website for the British Sandwich Association? Surely a large proportion of all the mayonnaise eaten in the UK is eaten in sandwiches.

There are British Sandwich Association awards! The Sammies! Who knew? Why aren't these awards better publicised? I eat sandwiches almost every day, but I watch maybe only one film a week, yet the Oscars get much more coverage than the Sammies. It's wrong. The Sammies should be on BBC1. Everyone likes sandwiches, surely. Millions of people would tune in. Come on BBC.

And look, there's a British Sandwich Association magazine! The International Sandwich & Snack News. This is what's in the current issue:

BSA
Sandwich Designer of the Year: It's time to get your design hats on again, with the top award up for grabs
The Sammies awards might seem some way off, but now's the time to put your hat in the ring or nominate someone else

PROFILES
The sandwich world has a new designer star in the shape of Hain Celestial's Jay Gosh. Simon Ambrose went to meet him.
Apostrophe is one of London's fast-growing sandwich stars with sixteen stores, the latest in the new Westfield complex in Shepherd's Bush. But is its reputation for excellence deserved? Nellie Nichols goes along to find out

INDEPENDENT PROFILES
Reynolds sandwich bar and café works closely with its suppliers, including running trials and offering its store as a sampling facility
Single-minded Victoria Pike always wanted to run her own sandwich bar and spent years working for other companies to achieve her objective. It's a story of dedication and training

SANDWICH RESEARCH
Saturation, what saturation? Jeffrey Young, Alegra Strategies' founder, says there's in the region of five years more expansion still to come for sandwich bars and cafés

I like the phrase "sandwich research".

The British Sandwich Association has a mission. And they stated what their mission is in their mission statement:

As the voice of the British sandwich industry, the primary objectives of The British Sandwich Association are:

SAFETY - To safeguard the integrity of the sandwich market by setting standards for sandwich making, by encouraging excellence in sandwich making and by encouraging the development of the industry in terms of skills, innovation and overall market development.
GROWTH - To encourage positive growth both in the market and the Association both through the development of the organisation and by promoting the consumption of sandwiches.
COMMUNICATION - To represent the interests of the industry and members to Government and all those in a position influence the industry or factors affecting the industry.
SUPPORT - To provide a source of support and information for members

I wonder how they promote the consumption of sandwiches. I haven't seen any adverts for sandwiches on TV.

EAT SANDWICHES YOU BASTARDS.

That would be a good slogan. If any representatives from the BSA are reading this, you're welcome to use that slogan.

There's also an information centre with lots of information about sandwiches. Unfortunately, most of it is restricted only to members of the BSA, so I have no idea what the management committee have to say, but you can see all the people who have won a Sammie since the awards began in 1995 which is handy seeing as the BBC website is no use.

There are also some very interesting insights into the sandwich market. Some of which, it is promised, will make your mouth water.

It is also estimated that the lunchbox market (that’s sandwiches made at home but carried out to be consumed at work or school etc.) represent around 24% of all sandwiches. It is believed that around 74% of all lunch boxes contain a sandwich.

What could possibly be in the remaining 26% of lunchboxes?


This article by Jane Baynton is fascinating.

Automatic bread feeders, bread buttering and spray buttering machines, sonic cutters, flow wrappers, multivacs, thermoformers and automatic labellers have all become common place. In very recent years we have seen the creation of the fully automated line. Who could ever have envisaged sandwiches being made by robots?

Who indeed.

Sonic cutters sound exciting don't they? They look impressive too:



You can buy them from a company called Millitec, although the website doesn't say how much they cost. I'm guessing they're probably quite expensive. The Ultra-cut can slice up to sixty sandwiches in a minute. That's probably faster than I need to slice sandwiches to be honest as I normally only make one sandwich at a time.

You can also get a butterer and a butterbox. I'm not entirely sure what a butterbox is. Obviously, it's something to do with buttering bread, but quite how you use it is a mystery. This is what a butterbox looks like:



Those cogs on the side look pleasingly functional.

Millitec's new Butterbox is the first truly hygienic way to mechanically butter. The unique design maintains the proven concept of mechanical buttering but completely eliminates the terrible food traps associated with traditional butterers. The same Butterbox will fit most manufacturer's machines with mountings for AFT, Rutland Handling and their clones. The minimal part count enables simple strip down and build up for hygiene with no scope for incorrect assembly. Improved seal technology reduces leakage from the box and large integrated bearing surfaces eliminate the need for frequent bush change. Food traps on the box and rollers are completely eliminated by manufacturing as single piece solid units. The box can be supplied with a jacketed induction heater hopper, allowing controlled localised warming of the butter with no electrical connections at all.

I don't know what any of that means.

Look at this too:



It can slice up to two and a half thousand kilograms of tomatoes in a single day. Incredible. I don't even know what two and a half thousand kilograms of tomatoes looks like. How many tomatoes is that? How much does a single tomato weigh? I don't know. Brilliant.