INDUSTRIAL CLIENTS...

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.

Dustraction to help British wood and panel workers meet and maintain new COSHH regulations.

Health and safety executive is now seeking to further improve the monitoring of all waste extraction from individual machines.

This takes the form of fitting flow gauges within ductwork and servicing individual hoods to ensure that the operator is able to manage extraction performance easily as well as monitoring the air flow is maintained at the correct level at all times.

Due to the variable pressures encountered in and around the hoods, which serve different machine types. Ideal pressure requirements and correct gauge flow levels need to accurately measured and maintained to keep the pressure levels at the required level.

Steve Matuska, Dustraction’s Managing Director, said: “Dustraction supplies an ideal range of glow gauge instruments with simple red and green markings which provide an easy to read indication of extraction performance.

“These allow extraction systems, such as this new installation at Manor High School in Leicester, to effectively maintain their system in accordance with Health and Safety executive requirements at all times.”

Parts supplied by Dustraction, says Steve Matuska, will have material specifications identical to or better than original equipment by other makers and will often improve the performance of existing extraction layouts through advances

in filtration media and technical specification upgrades. A variable range of consumables including filter bags and cartridges is also available from stock at competitive prices.

The Health & Safety Executive states that one of the most Frequently  Asked Questions encountered on its website is: “Do I have to fit air-flow indicators to all hoods in the LEV system?” The answer, says Steve Matuska, is that up to now there has been no legal requirement to do so but adds that the law now requires employers to observe the correct level of LEV by ensuring that adequate air flow is maintained at all times.

Phase two of the new wood waste extraction and management system has now been completed. Dustraction has supplied Triplar, one of Britain’s leading names in store design and fitting, has now been completed.

At the topping ceremony at the newly refurbished premises at Finedon Road Industrial Estate in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, Managing Director Mike Rodwell said: “There is a great satisfaction in knowing that our flammable waste now becomes a reliable energy source and a benefit to the company rather than being a costly burden for landfill disposal.

Triplar has moved to a smaller factory because of the precision timber joinery work that is central to the image plans of blue-chip customers such as Nokia, Levi Strauss and Nike which is more specialised than clients in the past.

The Zerbrik PZ 63/1 chipper will also make a major contribution towards economic disposal by Triplar of waste material s including hardwoods, softwood, particleboard, MDF, cardboard, plastics and other materials, all of which are used frequently in the creation of highly image-specific displays for companies whose dedication to point perfect precision in the representation of their brands is important.

A fully programmable logic controller and touch screen control system allows for quick reaction to problems which are highlighted by the troubleshooting monitor, the robust nature of the technology used in the Zerbrik reduces all solid off-cuts to cyclo filter-manageable material, this eliminates any further need for waste disposal by mechanical means.

The fully automatic WT15a incinerator is at the leading edge of waste incineration and factory heating technology, having been designed with fewer moving parts and more efficient combustion features to outperform and outlast more traditional incinerator types.

Managing director, Mike Rodwell, and his son Tim, who has recently become Business Development Manager at Triplar, jointly acknowledge their role in controlling waste emissions and are determined to avoid any contribution towards global warming in the future. By re-investing profit resources back into their business, the partnership aims to help to build the next climate conscious generation of management while ensuring that the standards of their globally powerful client base are met in full.