Barry Fitzgerald
Maintenance and Engineering

An educated electrician, Barry leads our maintenance and engineering team. One of the things he loves about his work is that he is always learning – particularly with initiatives to improve the efficiency of operations on site.

“It’s good to be part of Kingspan and its Planet Passionate programme as we are constantly looking for new things and trying out new ideas to see what works best,” he says. “We set up a plan which identified an inventory of quick wins and energy reduction opportunities needing additional investment. Since then, I’ve been changing lights over to LED and installing automatic sensors. We’ve also achieved big reductions in energy by adjusting heating and cooling systems – shutting off steam to parts of the factory when it is not needed and reducing the number of cooling towers in operation when temperatures are lower.”

Trouble shooting… problem solving … helping out with a fish pass.

Barry joined Inokor seven years ago, having worked as a contract electrician for industrial customers. Now he is kept busy maintaining machines and equipment on site, as well as trouble shooting and carrying out repairs when problems arise. It requires wide-ranging knowledge across moulding machines, boilers and compressors, as well as water and sprinkler systems, and more. That’s what makes the work interesting and varied for him. “Every day there is something new to be learnt. Water is a good example. The steam we use in the production process needs to be at a certain quality to maintain the quality of our products. I oversee the chemical composition of the water used to produce the steam there are changes, I need to configure the machinery accordingly. I’ve also been involved with the hydro turbine, which runs seasonally. Until recently, it was not used during the migration season when fish swim up river. We recently installed and are closely monitoring a fish pass which means the turbine can remain active and the fish can pass by safely. I didn’t do any of these activities when I was just an electrician!” The busy and varied life at work is not so different from home life where he has three children aged between one and five years. Their arrival has curtailed the amount of time he is able to head for nearby beaches with his surfboard so he’s looking forward to when they are bigger and able to join him in the waves.

Pride in the success of water-saving initiative

His hobby prompts interest in caring for natural resources and the environment, and he is particularly proud of the outcome of an initiative to reduce the site’s use of public water supplies: “We are harvesting water from the quarry on site rather than using mains supply for the steam process. It’s been working perfectly and has cut mains water consumption for our operations by more than 90% in the first quarter of 2023. It’s a good success for us, the environment and the community as it further closes the water loop.”

Looking ahead, solar power is on the horizon. “We are currently working out which roofs are suitable for panels,” he says, adding that he has also been involved with trials to introduce recycled materials into packaging and running a LPG boiler on biogas.  

Apart from the sustainability innovations, he would love to see more electric machinery being introduced into the factory to replace the existing hydraulics. “I’m an electrician through and through – and not so much a mechanic,” he explains. He would also be keen for Askeaton site to expand its activities in new construction materials such as insulated bricks to bring big advantages for the thermal efficiency of new homes.