EXTRACTLY DELIVERS ON TIME, AND ON BUDGET

Extractly’s sales director, Jake Oldfield, had initially been invited to assess the company’s requirements for a complete new extraction system, including the supply and installation of a new filter unit. Subsequently, however, following the winding down of production at L&G Modular Homes’ factory in Yorkshire, and obviously with a keen eye for a good deal, Paul Sullivan had acquired a substantial pre-owned filter unit, complete with its 75kW main extraction fan. “Getting it transported across the Pennines and fixed securely in place here was the easy part,” Paul conceded, “but installing new ductwork throughout the factory, and getting the whole system to work safely and efficiently with a second-hand filter unit, was definitely a job best left to the professionals!”

Although we’d had to forgo an order for a new filter unit,” says Jake Oldfield, “this was still a sizeable project for Extractly and, because the fan and filter Paul had installed was probably powerful enough to extract from a factory twice the size, our revised proposal also included for the supply and installation of Ecogate® energy-saving ‘On-Demand’ extraction control technology.” Without Ecogate® installed, the main fan would be operating at full power, throughout the working day, with a total annual electricity consumption estimated at around 180,000kW.

However, with an Ecogate® greenBOX controller continuously monitoring individual machine usage and, via the Ecogate® PowerMASTER™, continually adjusting fan speed to exactly match extraction demand, huge reductions in electricity consumption are possible – resulting in correspondingly significant cost savings, as Paul confirmed: “Although the fan’s motor has the capacity to give us up to 75kW worth of extraction power, the Ecogate® system provides real-time data on power consumption and typically, with most machines running, we’re only using around 35kW… but that then reduces at break times, as machines are powered down, and once all machines are shut down the fan also shuts down automatically.” And, as Paul also points out: “The workshop is a much calmer, quieter place to work than it used to be!”

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.

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 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.”