A HIGH-RISE specialist company has launched a new division offering specialist rope access services.

Stone Technical Services (STS) of Darlington has launched STS RopeSpec Limited to inspect, repair and maintain guy wires to flare stacks, vessels, bridges and other structures.

The company has teamed up with rope access expert Ron Lewins, who has worked in the sector for more than 40 years on thousands of projects for the likes of the Ministry of Defence, BP, Esso, INEOS Nitriles and many other industrial organisations.

He is globally recognised for his skills and has worked with brothers Dave and Grahame Stone, from STS, since the 1980s. Mr Lewins has now joined STS as a principle consultant for their RopeSpec division and will also train a number of the technical engineers in the specialist field of rope tensioning, inspection, verticality and loading requirements for industrial wire rope fields.

STS now has five divisions – STS RopeSpec, STS Lightning Protection, STS Restoration, STS Maintenance and Facilities Management and STS Conservation. The business employs a team of 40 and secured more than £1.5 million of new work in the first six months of 2016.