Our People

Daphne Wassermann

CEng FIMechE MIMMM MCIWM ACIArb

DaphneWassermann.jpg

Expertise

  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Materials
  • Stress and Failure Analysis
  • Personal Injury
  • Waste Management
  • Environmental Issues
  • Mediation
  • Intellectual Property

Experience

Mechanical and metallurgical engineer with over 35 years' experience.

Failure investigations of a variety of types of plant, including mobile crane, pipe supports in a major tunnel, bellows in a large diameter compressed air line, vibrator for plaster product manufacture, industrial heat exchanger. Most requiring preparation of evidence for civil litigation.

Personal injury cases including consideration of health and safety issues.

Experience of court and Arbitration proceedings.

Mediations undertaken both as lead and assistant mediator and as advisory expert.

Waste management and disposal including feasibility studies, tendering for new plant and for waste disposal contracts, incinerator planning applications and public inquiries.

Preparation of expert evidence on behalf of local authorities for public inquiries. Preparation of Environmental Statements and phase 1 contaminated land surveys.

Personal Data

  • Position: Technical Director, Cadogans
  • Year of Birth: 1949
  • Languages: Mother tongue English,
    Intermediate French, German,
    Basic Italian, Spanish.

Professional Qualifications and Registrations

  • 1st Class Honours Degree in Natural Sciences (Metallurgy), University of Cambridge
  • MSc in Mechanics of Materials, University of Strathclyde
  • Chartered Engineer
  • Registered with FEANI
  • UK Register of Expert Witnesses
  • Qualified Mediator with the Academy of Experts

Selection of Experience:

Forensic and Expert Witness

  • Mediations for the Central London Civil Justice Centre, Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Glasgow Sheriff Court and Catalyst Mediation.
  • Many industrial and personal injury cases including injuries whilst carrying out manual handling, installation and maintenance work or from faulty equipment.
  • Failure assessments including wheelchair, dental filtration unit, bicycles, sewage flash tank and various plumbing fittings.
  • Malfunction of pump at auction mart.
  • Patent infringement of drilling mud treatment equipment.
  • Dispute over supply of waste treatment equipment.
  • Fire in compressed air dryer.
  • Buckling collapse of power station boiler.
  • Dispute over insulation of power station pipework on Humberside.
  • Oil spillage on demolition site in East Kilbride.
  • Failure of sewage flash tank.
  • Mechanical assessment of overhead crane in Belgium.
  • Air pollution control equipment for secondary aluminium smelter.
  • Failure of bellows unit on blast furnace air supply.


Waste, Environment and Energy

  • Scoping Study: use of CHP in the steel industry for ETSU (now Future Energy Solutions).
  • Various Phase I contaminated land surveys.
  • Environmental chapter of market report on high efficiency power generation.
  • Hospital clinical waste incineration research project for Scottish Office.
  • Incineration feasibility studies, tendering and implementation for several Scottish Health Boards.
  • Environmental Impact Assessments for several Scottish Health Boards.
  • Assistance with preparing evidence for Public Inquiries and legal cases involving sewage sludge, municipal waste and hazardous waste incinerators.
  • Waste survey and management study for University of Glasgow.
  • Assessment of tenders for waste disposal in Oxfordshire.
  • Community energy study for education authority in Northern Ireland.
  • SWOT analysis: diversification of oil industry into renewables.
  • Feasibility assessment for biomass boiler in Northern Ireland.
  • Implementation of GREENCODE Environmental Management system for Scottish NHS Trusts

Mechanical Engineering and Stress Analysis

  • Independent witnessing of dismantling of failed mud pump in Italy.
  • Hazard reports for NHS in Scotland.
  • Pipework analysis for oil company.
  • Study of failure of pipe supports for TML.
  • Design re-appraisal for shaker at Streamline Building Products.
  • Fatigue assessment of pipe junction for BP Oils, Grangemouth.
  • Study of heat exchange thermal fluids for electronics industry.
  • Installation of new monitoring and control instrumentation on cremators.
  • Feasibility study and implementation for Perth Crematorium.

Employment Record:

1997 to date    Cadogans (formerly Rendel Palmer & Tritton (Scotland)). Technical Director.
1989 to 1997    Rendel Palmer & Tritton (Scotland). Senior Engineer in Mechanical and Forensic Department.
1975 to 1989    Babcock Energy Research Centre. Assistant Project Engineer, Project Engineer and Senior Project Engineer in Static Stress Analysis Group, Mechanical Engineering Department.
1972 to 1974    London/Liverpool. Part-time Science Teaching. Part-time voluntary work on employment schemes for the disabled and for young unemployed men.
1970 to 1972    Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. Research into precipitation in sodium chloride single crystals.

Professional Activities:

  • Member of Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Energy Environment and Sustainability Group.

Court Appearances:

  • International Court of Arbitration, London, 2007, failures and malperformance of flue gas desulphurisation equipment.
  • Paisley Sheriff Court, 2006, injury from timber mulcher.

Mediations:

  • Central London Civil Justice Centre, 2004, sole mediator.
  • Catalyst Mediation, 2005 to present, 6 mediations, co-mediator.
  • Edinburgh Sheriff Court, 2004 to present, 27 mediations, lead and co-mediator and telephone mediation.
  • Glasgow Sheriff Court, 2006 to 2008, 4 mediations, lead and co-mediator.
    As expert advising the parties.

Voluntary Activities:

  • Local Secretary for Practical Action (formerly Intermediate Technology Development Group).

Technical Papers:

  • (D.R. Hayman with A.J. Bannaghan, P.L. Pratt) "Experimental study of phase transformations in bulk ionic crystals", 7th International Symposium on the Reactivity of Solids, 1972.
  • "Experimental investigation of stresses in cold-bent pipes due to internal pressure and in-plane bending", Int. J. Pressure Vessels and Piping, 14 (1983).
  • "An experimental and finite element study of the stresses in two pipework tee junctions under internal pressure and external loads", First Conference on Pipework Engineering and Operation, IMechE, 1985.
  • (With John McCullough) "Scotland: Clinical Waste Incineration". Wastes Management, January 1993
  • "Clinical Waste Disposal - the Scottish Scene". Scottish Envirotec Magazine, December 1993.
  • "Legislation governing clinical waste disposal". Seminar at Victoria Infirmary, January 1994.
  • (With John McCullough) "Methods and Business Opportunities in Clinical Waste Disposal". Envirotec Conference, February 1994.
  • (With John McCullough) "Opportunities for Clinical Waste Management and Disposal". Scottish Health Service Estates Conference, May 1994.
  • (With John McCullough) "Methods and Business Opportunities for Clinical Waste Disposal in Scotland", Proceedings of the Institute of Waste Management, July 1994.
  • (With John McCullough) "Clinical Waste Management and Disposal". Journal of Waste Management & Resource Recovery, September 1994.
  • “Waste as a Resource". Scottish Envirotec Magazine, December 1994.
  • "A Decade of Change in Clinical Waste Treatment and Disposal in Scotland". Proc. 15th International Congress of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering, Edinburgh, June 1998 and published in "Health Estate" Volume 53 No. 10, December 1999
  • "Scotland Introduces New Technology and Updates Segregation Guidelines". Local Authority Waste and Environment, October 1998.
  • "Briefing Paper: Waste". Architects and Engineers for Social Responsibility, July 1999.
  • "Waste Away". Presentation to AGM of Architects and Engineers for Social Responsibility, October 1999.
  • "A Selection of Forensic Engineering Cases". 2nd International Conference on Forensic Engineering, London, November 2001.
  • “Use of CHP in the Steel Industry”. Seminar on 25th March 2003, Rotherham.
  • “Dialogue with an Engineer”. Training seminars for various legal firms and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Autumn 2005.
  • “The silent witnesses”. Article on fatal accident investigations for Your Witness magazine, May 2009.
  • “Personal Injury – the Role of the Engineer”. Article for Your Witness magazine, November 2011.