ICE Group has been operating in Australia since 2003, and has been operating in New Zealand since the early 1990’s.
As a family business, it has grown from a design company specialising in valve design to a digital prototyping agency with capabilities spanning across the majority of mechanical and manufacturing disciplines.
Specialising in conceptual design, ICE Group strives to assist in the realisation of green-energy programs, designing new products and redesigning existing products to make a said product accountable for their entire life-cycle; from idea to concept, design to development, usage, repair, and eventual recycle.
Our People
Nigel Hood
Company director / engineer
Nigel has been involved in the industrial instrumentation and control sector for 38 years. His career path started with the New Zealand licensee of a US based valve manufacturer. Working in the design office involved drafting, workshop planning and materials procurement. Growing and graduating through the company, he promoted through the roles of Engineering Manager and General Manager. The US parent withdrew from New Zealand and closed the company in 1993.
Seizing the opportunity he formed the design and development company ICE in 1993, heading it as Managing Director and as an ongoing role. This lead to the design of filtration and dewatering systems for wastewater and other industrial slurries. For specific custom applications, ICE has continued to provide specialised designs for high energy control valves for the oil, gas, petrochemical and electricity industries.
Moving to Australia, he, qualified as a Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Officer, working with an Australian conveyor manufacturer. This involved airport baggage handling systems and freight logistics systems and to provide WHS/OHS consultancy for design, installation and operational (O&M) to enable compliance to AS/NZS Standards and best practices.
In 2011 ICE-CDP was formed as a dedicated corporate R&D entity to explore various technologies from concept, through the development and prototype phases and on to commercialisation. experience in engineering, both in industry and privately. Industries involved with are; oil and gas exploration, oil and gas production, thermal and geothermal power generation energy optimisation and the New Zealand dairy industry. Other industry experiences have provided a wide range of industrial applications requiring laterally thought out solutions and an intense passion for new technology with the ability to solve technical problems through innovative solutions.
Nigel is a Director and Senior Concept Designer of ICE-CDP.
Married 36 years with two grown children.
Educated in New Zealand (BDes3D) and Australia (Certificate IV in OHS)
Citizen of Ireland and New Zealand
Paul Hood
Company director / designer
Paul has been active in the design and manufacturing sectors of industry for over 14 years. His work has a broad base of custom design and manufacturing companies; producers of high pressure control valves, working in; power generation, mining and emerging technologies.
He lead ICE’s contract for a major Australian company producing G.E.T. – Ground, Engaging, Tools; the sacrificial components in earth-moving equipment. The client also produces almost any cast ware componentry used in mining. The client is currently Australia’s OEM supplier for G.E.T. to a major Japanese equipment manufacturer.
His work includes a large Australian sand mining design company who contracted ICE to design and produce detail models/drawings for; bulk bins, launders, hoppers, trommels, cyclones and most other specialised equipment for sand mining.
Paul leads the ICE’s contract design team for product development developing models for manufacture. This involves the generation of images for brochures, data sets and capturing of existing prototype production data.
Paul continues to have a significant role in ICE’s Design team for the concept of new and innovative valve designs for high energy and severe service applications.
Ongoing Contract Work is an active segment of ICE’s capability portfolio. Paul heads the contractor area for this area. He is adept at taking the needs of the client and resolving them into greater than expected outcomes for and client.
Paul is a Director and Lead Designer of ICE-CDP (2011), a company formed as a dedicated corporate R&D entity to explore various technologies from concept, through the development and prototype phases and on to commercialisation.
Educated in New Zealand: Diploma of Design Major: Product/ Industrial Design
Citizen of Ireland and New Zealand
