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Axiom Joinery in Leicester, have just been obliged to move at short notice to a bigger factor, in order to fulfil the large volume of orders coming in from design agencies servicing the retail sector.

It may be located in a quiet high street, but Dominic Taylor at Axiom, says that all the big retail names are spending money on their counters, displays and point of sales systems.

The move took place during a weekend in order to minimise disruption on the shop floor. Dustraction won the contract to move the extraction system serving a dozen wood and panel machines at the old factory and to upgrade the filter. The implementation of the extraction system and the changeover to the new factory was a fantastic success.
Dominic says: “Dustraction came in first with the hardware on the Friday afternoon, installed all the ductwork and linked the connections across during the Saturday and early part of Sunday. In fact, they were all done by mid-day on the Sunday and we all got home in time for Sunday lunch, which if you had told me beforehand, I wouldn’t have believed possible.”
The new filter is a Dustrax 27BB series unit and is a modular bolted construction, which allows for ongoing increases in size of the extraction unit to raise its capacity to accommodate new wood and panel machinery that Dominic planned for 2008/09. Part of this sophisticated operation will be to reduce the carbon footprint of Axiom Joinery.

The Dustrax 27 filters wood waste via the tubular felt sock system, which features an automatic shaker to dislodge the waste that builds up during the course of operation. Waste is then transferred from the filter, to an enclosed bagging hopper, by a floor mounted fan; the waste is kept in five heavy duty, high capacity, plastic waste sacks, which are retained on spigot mounts with a quick release toggle action sealing bands, this allows for quick and easy disposal.

The new factory, with a workforce of around 20 employees will generate around 30 cubic metres of wood dust and chip waste weekly, and Dominic’s estimation is that he expects the figure to rise dramatically with the amount of new clients he has coming through the door.

Dominic’s very confident about the Dustraction filter, and he feels that it will deliver a safe and clean way to maintain an efficient shop floor. He adds: I’ve got the fullest order book we’ve had in the three years of the company’s life, so I want to be completely confident in all aspects of the shop floor operation.

Wood waste is something I don’t want to ever think about, that’s Dustractions job. And I have no doubt, from what I’ve seen so far, they will do it, and do it well!”

The biggest, most powerful Cattinair cyclo-filter ever installed in the UK furniture industry is at the heart of one of the year’s most extensive dust extraction systems. The new installation at CB Manufacturing’s furniture division factory in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, which was designed and installed by Dustraction, the Leicestershire based UK agent for Cattinair.

The Dustraction have a long line of success stories this summer in terms of its Cattinair plant, its cost effectiveness is widely recognised among an increasing number of UK furniture and woodworking manufacturers, intent on introducing efficient, trouble free waste control into their factories.

CB Manufacturing produces high quality, wooden bathroom furniture for Heritage Bathroom Distribution and Chatsworth USA; all companies are part of the Masco Group. Faced with a need for an upgrade to its previous chain filter extraction plant, largely due to a rapid expansion in output, the company undertook a thorough investigation of dust extraction systems available in today’s market.

Andy Wild, CB Manufacturing’s group Health, Safety and Quality manager, says: “we were looking for a system with some or all of the following characteristics: simplicity in operation, few moving parts so that maintenance would be minimal, continuous running, small footprint, due to space constraints and a high quality of returned, recycled air.”

CB Manufacturing has been on the same site located near Weston-super-Mare for more than seven years. During this time output has risen substantially. Currently, it is around £250,000 a month in value and this figure is planned to rise in the near future.

The installation has proved to be a challenging operation for Dustraction. The Cattinair 4X10 cyclo-filter, with a total air volume of 80,000cfm, was craned into place on to concrete bases prepared by the Elegant Building Company. New ducting, including new air return air ductwork (complete with summer and winter dampers) was introduced into the plant; including den specially designed sanding booths.

Andy Wild says: “We were able to run both the old and the new systems simultaneously to help minimise disruption during the transition to the new system, and whilst all the necessary ductwork connects were made. This included moving the current wood burner with the assistance of Ranheat, EIS Electrical Contractors and Dustraction personnel.

Dustraction worked closely with the team at CB Manufacturing’s site to ensure that both the booths and downdraught sanding benches all met the necessary requirements, including coherent dust control. The benches have been designed largely on the lines of previous benches that have won Dustraction a strong following among furniture and woodworking manufacturers.

The booths have extraction units at the rear and the tables are equipped with top and front downdraught extraction. The legal requirement for such booths is an atmosphere of no more than 5mg of dust per cubic metre. In fact, Dustraction have been able to reduce this figure to 3mg and in some cases have had readings of just 2mg, this is an astounding figure when taking into consideration the volume of fine dust created by hand and power sanding, and it’s a remarkable achievement.

Dustraction lend their helping hand to Oakfield Cabinets.

Oakfield cabinets supply rigid built cabinets for the local market in Antrim, Northern Island. Here the housing market has been grim in 2006 and 2007.

The company are currently generating around £20,000 of waste in terms of landfill, so it was time for a change and to clean up their act. Dustraction were called, one of the country’s leading extraction companies in the UK. They have devised an extractoin plan set up to remedy Oakfield’s waste issue.

Managing director of Oakfield Cabinets, Francis Dick, decided to make up any shortfalls by building bespoke cabinet furniture for shop fitters across the Ulster area, this has significantly increased business, so it was time to install a new waste disposal and incineration package provided by Dustraction.

Francis said: “We are generating around four tonnes of dust and solids per week, and that was costing around £20,000 each year to dispose via landfill. Environmental issues have come more into focus around here lately, so we have decided to clean up our act with the help of Dustraction.”

He adds “In doing so, we have eliminated the disposal cost, we have factory heating that is extremely effective which was free of charge, and for the first time in a long while, our working environment is as clean as a whistle”

The Dustraction system uses a Dustrax 27RV filter, which is made up of circular fabric tubes and an automatic shaker mechanism to provide periodic removal of any surplus waste on the filter sleeves.

All the waste falls to the base of the hopper and is discharged via a heavy duty rotary valve to a waste transport system and cyclonic separator mounted above a 30m³ silo serving a new WT25A incinerator plant.

Dustraction worked with Wood Waste Technology in conjunction with the incineration plant, installing the WT25A automatic unit which, according to WWT, is ‘State of the art wood combustion technology’. The system is set to accommodate factory fluctuations by burning 7,000kg and 10,000 kg of waste per week.

The equipment has new technology features which are more advanced than the competition including a screw feeder housed in a tube which falls short of the fire box to eliminate the need for annual replacement.

The system includes a grit arrestor, which has been designed to slow the movement of grit which in turn reduces wear within the box section of the filter. The induced draft fan has been re-sited away from the hottest gases for added safety, and to cool the impellers and maintain higher standards of balance.

Improved balance also promotes durability that is hard to come by in this type of equipment and makes the whole system run a lot more smoothly. The balance of dust and solid chipboard panel offcuts in the waste at Oakfield Cabinets also introduced the need for a new chipper. A Votecs EZ6/1 system was installed which has a load capacity of 0.6m³ and a special hydraulic ram feed system, which was also installed and designed by Dustraction.

One of the largest and most heavily-used wood machine complexes in the UK have taken a major step to improve its working environment, by introducing one of the most advanced dust extraction systems currently available.

Basford Hall College, in Nottingham has three modern and well equipped workshops, all of which are all linked to each other. The complex covers more than 900m², and has more than 35 individual woodworking machines for virtually every type of application.

The new Cattinair system, supplied and installed by Dustraction replaces equipment, which had been in operation for more than 20 years. The new system provided a dramatic improvement to the college’s working environment; the old system was running well below the required levels of efficiency and this resulted in a need for a change at the college.

The state of the art Cattinair system provides a number of improvements for the college. The Cattinair cyclonic filter, operating on a continuous basis, and because of the system having few moving parts means the maintenance costs are minimal.

The unique design targets wood-waste that is being blown into the filter chamber, 95 per cent of the waste is cyclonically separated before reaching the systems filters. The filter sleeves are made from fine (450g/m²) polyester felt, enabling air to pass through, but halting the passage of the remaining five per cent of the particulate.

Dust that settles on the outside of the filter sleeves is dislodged and extracted by the automatic blast function that fires compressed air at regular intervals. The life of the filter sleeves are extended not only because they come into contact with just five per cent of the fine dust, but also because the amount of movement and stress put on the sleeve is minimal. The system is guaranteed for three years (6,000 hours)

At Bashford Hall, the Dustraction team completed the work required at the college, including a variety of new ducting in the workshop, which Dustraction installed during the half-term break.

The most significant advantages to the new extraction system are that it saves the college money on heating costs. The system’s high levels of filtration mean that it can recycle warm, filtered air back into the workshop, which in turn increases the college’s energy efficiency.

The old extraction system created irritatingly high levels of dust, which often escaped into the workshop. The efficiency of the system has ensured that past problems have been completely eradicated, and now the working atmosphere at the college is clean and healthy.

Finally, the college also asked Dustraction to fit new hoods and connections to many of its machines, as well as providing new ductwork and sweep up points; these were included so that wood-waste can easily be removed. All the changes that Dustraction implemented into the college has created a positive atmosphere and eradicated any issues that the old system created. Another success story from one of the country’s leading extraction companies.

Oakham School, in Rutland is a co-educational centre of excellence in creative and technological design, for students aged 10 to 18 years of age, who are seeking to progress to university or other teaching establishments.

The new £2 million creative workshop is a state of the art facility. Money has been invested in new teaching systems, and in protecting the environment, which in turn offers a safe atmosphere for the students to learn in.

Dustraction won the contract for the new workshop. They were assigned to deal with waste that is generated by a range of machines working with wood, plastics and metal. The machinery and the Dustrax filter meet the needs of the facility, and help create a pleasant atmosphere which meets the needs of the creative students. The filter helps continue enhancing the school’s reputation for producing talented designers and technologists, while also building a strong bond between industry and the environment.

Two large, multi-material workshops on the ground floor provide an area for traditional processing of wood, plastics and metal. Two studios, one dedicated to computer aided design and manufacture, and the second concentrates on electronics. Both studios house a range of equipment synonymous with contemporary technology, including work stations for 50 personal computers.

As part of the environmental control system, Dustraction supplied an articulated arm for a wood lathe for optimum positioning by the operator to collect the light and floating dust generated whilst it is in use.

Dustraction also supplied one of their closed floor sweep up points, however, it was specifically designed with the schools needs in mind. Dustraction’s tailor-made approach enabled them to solve a problem that most other companies in the same line of work wouldn’t be able to offer a solution for.

The machines that Dustraction provide are extremely efficient. The air volume handled by the systems is 1.6m³, this capacity is based on all machines being in operation at any one time. The collector that the school decided to move forward with was the Dustrax No.40m filter with a filtration area of 40m², the machine is made up of multiple cotton filter elements operating a filtration velocity of around 5.7fpm. The schools unit is equipped with a fully automatic shake mechanism which is activated on shut down, this helps to get rid of excess waste, which in turn reduces the dependence on the generator.