Cold Comfort - Winter Maintenance Conference & Exhibition

Attendees, exhibitors & solutions

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Glossary

1

Cold Comfort

The UK winter maintenance and severe weather exhibition. Highway authorities, term maintenance contractors and fleet operators use it to compare gritter chassis, salt spreaders, bulk salt and liquid de-icing products, route optimisation software and road weather forecasting in one hall at CBS Arena in Coventry.

2

Winter service

The statutory highway duty covering precautionary salting, snow clearance and emergency response, normally planned from October to April. The duty managers and fleet engineers who run those operations are the core visitor group at Cold Comfort.

3

Gritter

A highway maintenance truck carrying a fixed or demountable salt spreader body, usually with plough mounting points and hydraulic front-end equipment. Gritters and spreader bodies are the largest vehicle category on the show floor.

4

Salt spreader

The hopper, conveyor and spinner unit that meters de-icing salt onto the carriageway. Specification turns on payload, spread width, spinner control and whether the unit can pre-wet at the spinner.

5

Rock salt (de-icing salt)

Treated sodium chloride in a coarse grading, the bulk commodity spread across a salting network. Suppliers at the show quote by tonne and by seasonal contract, so buyers compare grading, moisture content and delivery logistics.

6

Brine

Saturated salt solution used for anti-icing and pre-wetting. It is typically sprayed ahead of a forecast frost or added to dry salt at the spreader, and storage and mixing plant is part of the equipment offer at the exhibition.

7

Pre-wetting

Adding liquid de-icer to dry salt as it leaves the spinner so the grain grips the road, melts faster and bounces less. It is one of the main reasons fleets retrofit spreaders rather than replace whole vehicles.

8

Anti-icing

A prophylactic liquid or fine salt treatment applied before ice forms, as opposed to de-icing after ice has bonded to the surface. The distinction drives how much brine plant and sprayer capacity a depot needs.

9

RWIS (Road Weather Information System)

Roadside sensors and weather stations combined with forecast models that tell duty managers where, when and with what to treat. RWIS and forecasting providers exhibit alongside the vehicle and salt suppliers.

10

Thermal mapping

Surveying road surface temperature along a route so treatment decisions follow the coldest sections rather than a single weather station reading. It is a common procurement question when authorities review salting routes.

11

Treatment route / priority network

The pre-planned salting routes ranked by traffic volume, gradient and risk. Route optimisation and in-cab route guidance software sits in the technology part of the Cold Comfort floor.

12

Grit bin

A self-help salt bin for side roads and footways, stocked by the highway authority or a parish council. Bin supply, filling contracts and self-help policy are recurring topics for smaller authorities.

13

Snowplough

A front-mounted blade used with a gritter for snow clearance. Plough attachment compatibility is a live specification question when a fleet orders new vehicles.

14

Winter duty room

The control-room function that monitors forecasts and authorises out-of-hours treatments. Rostering, call-out arrangements and remote treatment authorisation are practical themes visitors bring to the show.

15

CBS Arena

Coventry Building Society Arena, the stadium and exhibition complex off the M6 north of Coventry that hosts Cold Comfort, with halls, on-site parking and its own railway station.

16

Coventry Arena station

The railway station next to the arena, served by West Midlands Railway trains on the Coventry to Nuneaton line. It is the cheapest way to reach the show without booking parking.

17

BHX

IATA code for Birmingham Airport, the nearest major airport to CBS Arena, roughly 20 to 30 minutes away by road or a rail connection via Birmingham International and Coventry.