Located on the 20th floor of UCL Guys Hospital in London,the new facility has replaced a 20 year old training centre and is now one of the most modern dental training facilities in the UK. Refurbishment work included services to each of the 120 student workstations,as well as ancillary areas providing full dental technician facilities for bridge work, mouldings and fillings.

Each of the workstations includes a phantom head linked to a local computer and LCD monitor,so that students can work through training videos at their own pace. All of the heads are equipped with adjustable jaws to accommodate a wide range of dental work.

The training area is divided into four zones, with workstations in the two main areas linked back to a central control desk,enabling tutors to monitor and teach the students either individually or in groups.

One of the main challenges facing Faber Maunsell engineers was the need to fit all of the services into a verylimited space, much of it beneath a shallow raised floor or diverting through a plantroom on the floor below.

In addition to power and data cabling, the workstations are served with compressed air and some with natural gas fuelling burners used for working with plastics.

Visibility was a primary consideration in the design,with a requirement for very high illuminance levels of 1000 lux, supplemented by task lighting. This has been achieved used semi- recessed downlighters with T5 linear fluorescent light sources.

These protrude slightly into the room,allowing a wash of light across the ceiling in addition to the downlighting.

As air conditioning is provided at high level, the lighting and fan coil units have been co-ordinated to ensure the luminaires do not interfere with the air flow from the air conditioning. The lighting is switched in zones, so the lighting in unoccupied areas can be switched off to save energy while students can continue to work in other areas.

Other features of the project include the supply of electricity to special desktop boilers used for wax removal from moulds. There was also a requirement for special drainage traps so that solids and contaminants are not introduced to the main drainage system.

Working closely with the department, Faber Maunsell has provided a flexible facility that fully meets the needs of the students and their teachers, combined with optimal energy consumption and low cost of ownership.

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