Wardray Premise has over 70 years’ experience in the design, manufacture, and installation of X-ray, gamma, neutron, and RF shielding products essential in imaging and radiotherapy departments.
Accredited to ISO9001:2008 and ISO13485, products are generally custom-made to suit individual requirements.
Particular areas of expertise are RF and magnetic shielding for MRI, completion of medical (and industrial) X-ray installations, and Monte-Carlo neutron shielding calculations for high-energy “linac” facilities.
Said to be the only “all-British manufacturer” of RF cages, the company has an installed base in excess of two hundred worldwide.
Typical products comprise traditional lead-lined panelling, doorsets (sliding, hinged, manual, automatic), curtain systems, protective screens, and observation windows. In addition, Wardray Premise supplies PREMAC radiation-shielding acrylic, lead-glass, and PREMADEX for neutron shielding.
The company’s in-house design team develops custom-made products which meet individual project requirements and are manufactured and installed by experienced craftsmen.
Wardray Premise has excellent relationships with main contractors such as Balfour Beatty, Costain, Interserve, Laing O’Rourke, and Skanska, “meeting their requirements for quality, sustainability and cost-effectiveness”.
The company is also the exclusive UK stockist of X-ray protection glass (Med-X) manufactured by Corning, a world leader in speciality glass applications. The glass is supplied as polished plates cut to customer requirements in sizes up to 2,800 x 1,400 mm, allowing architects to design viewing windows with a wider field of vision.
Recent projects on which it has worked include:
• The UK’s first CyberKnife cancer treatment facility: a contract for the design, build, testing, and final commissioning, of 300 tonnes of lead shielding, with an 18 tonne power-operated door, for the Harley Street Clinic in London.
• The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough: a ProCure21 contract for Interserve, involving installation of lead shielding and a power-operated shielded door to an existing linac bunker. Further installation work included lead shielded doors, windows, and over 60 “Relax & View” ceiling panels.
• The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham: the PFI project is reportedly the UK’s largest single-site development of its kind. Wardray Premise installed six RF cages to a final fit-out stage, two fully shielded iodine rooms (using 80 tonnes of lead) with automated shielded doors, and observation windows. The company also designed, manufactured, and installed, 22 X-ray screens, and six rotating curtain systems, for the new A&E department.
• GE Energy: Wardray completed a contract to design, manufacture, and install, a pneumatic neutron shielded door and source cabinet using PREMADEX.
Sheila Wardley, Wardray Premise MD, said: “We are delighted to be involved in such exciting projects. Wardray Premise offers expertise and a proven track record of successfully completing cost-effective radiation shielding projects. The company ethos is ‘quality without compromise’, and this is our aim across all of our business activities.”
Established in 1909, Wardray Premise is a fourth generation family business with what it says is “an enviable tradition of quality, reliability and customer service”. Over the past 75 years it has developed radiation-shielding solutions worldwide, with agents in 45 countries. To complement its shielding products and services, it also offers accessories for X-ray and MRI.
