EXTRACTLY DELIVERS ON TIME, AND ON BUDGET

Extractly Limited have recently completed the installation of a 20,000m3/hr dust waste extraction system, with a super-quick turnaround, for a leading furniture manufacturer.

Established in 2015, by Managing Director Martin Clarke, Cotswold Panel Products Ltd manufactures bespoke panel components and produces panel-based built furniture for the hospitality, events and exhibition markets, corporate office spaces, educational establishments, along with POS items for retail businesses and other specialised commercial markets. With Martin at the helm, the company is still very much a family-run business renowned for quality and attention to detail; delivering a high level of customer service, with a personal touch.

Over the past decade Martin’s dedicated team has continually driven the company forward; achieving consistently solid sales growth, which has demanded a continuous programme of investment in cutting-edge machinery to deliver ever greater capacity – which has, of course, continually necessitated bigger and better premises to accommodate it all. Martin’s latest plans for the company involved moving production just over the border (around 7 miles, as the crow flies), from a semi-rural site in Gloucestershire to their new 20,000 sq. ft. facility on the north west outskirts of Evesham, in Worcestershire.

The company’s new 20,000 sq. ft. facility provides space for efficient workflow and potential for future expansion.

“Our relocation has actually been on the cards for around 2 years” Martin explained, “but, unfortunately, plans to move to another property we’d earmarked fell through at a late stage; we’d even got as far as going out to tender for the installation of a new dust extraction system.” Extractly Ltd had previously carried out a relatively minor addition to the extraction system at the company’s former location and, impressed with the service provided, and the engineers’ work on site, Martin had included Extractly Limited on the shortlist for installation of a new extraction system. Although that move was ultimately scuppered, the decision had already been taken to award the contract to Extractly; based on their industry knowledge, their understanding of the requirements, their proposed budget for the project, and their commitment to completion of the installation within a tight deadline. “So, when the Evesham property came across our radar at the beginning of the year,” Martin continued, “I was more than happy to invite Extractly to put together a new proposal, again for a complete installation, but based on our updated requirements.”

Galvanised steel QF ductwork throughout the factory connects all machines to the extraction system.

“We were delighted to have another opportunity to work with Cotswold Panel Products,” says Graham Seymour, Extractly’s sales engineer on the project, “and this installation was straight out of the textbook.” The new location presented an opportunity for production flow to be organised much more effectively, and also affords Martin plenty of capacity to increase output and accommodate further machinery acquisitions. “The factory was being completely refurbished ahead of the move,” says Graham, “so, with no production schedules to work around, we had virtually free rein to install the most efficient extraction system to meet the demands of the company’s current range of high-speed machinery, with a margin of spare capacity available for future expansion.”

The system currently extracts from an externally-sited chipper, along with 10 other production machines, of varying capacity; from edge sander to edgebander, and drilling machines to CNC machining centres. The main 45kW fan delivers dust and chip-laden air to the Aagaard ASF 2 DAK XL ATEX filter unit which houses over 160m3 of filter material to capture extracted woodwaste from the air flow.

The Aagaard ASF 2 DAK XL ATEX filter unit is powered by a 45kW main fan to provide an airflow capacity of 20,000m3/hr.

Heavier waste material drops into the hopper section, at the base of the unit, where it’s continually gathered up by scrapers on a chain conveyor and, above the filtration section, three 1.5kW regeneration fans operate intermittently to remove the finer dust from the filter material. All of the collected waste is discharged pressure-free, via a rotary valve, from where a 15kW waste transport fan delivers it to a sealed waste container ready for its final journey to a biomass energy plant.

Dust and chips are discharged from the filter unit via a rotary valve, then a 15kW transport fan delivers it to the waste container.

Nordfab’s QF galvanised steel ductwork installed throughout connects all machines to the extraction system and, in the unlikely event of an explosion occurring in the filter unit, an ATEX-certified non-return valve ensures that resultant pressure and flames are restricted from travelling back down the ductwork and into the factory.

Extractly always advise on the inclusion of an ATEX-certified non-return valve for any dust extraction system.

“Extractly executed a really neat and efficient installation for us,” Martin concludes, “and I couldn’t fault the professional manner in which the project was executed. The entire installation was completed in under a week; allowing us to move straight in with machinery and get back to full production again in under 10 days.”