ACI MOVES TO LARGER PREMISES FACILITATES CURRENT AND FUTURE GROWTH

Air Control Industries, leading manufacturer of fans, blowers and airknife surface drying systems is moving to new and larger premises. This move will provide for improved and extended manufacturing capabilities combined with enhanced test and development facilities.

ACI’s move to new premises in Axminster comes after 40 years on the Chard site, which the company has now outgrown. As well as providing scope for growth and reorganisation of manufacturing processes for greater efficiency, the new site has much better access for today’s large transport vehicles, which will greatly improve handling of goods in wards and outwards.

Also, with the new factory being just five miles away, the company will be able to retain all its key staff, ensuring continuity and no loss of expertise.

Managing director Paul Tuffin said: “We are delighted that we have finally found a suitable factory within five miles of our current location. The new site has plenty of scope for future growth and has excellent access for the large articulated vehicles that struggle to manoeuvre into our existing site.”

Personnel De-dusting Booth Makes Life Cleaner and Safer for RNLi

The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea. It provides a 24-hour lifeboat search and rescue service around the coasts of the UK and Republic of Ireland, plus a seasonal lifeguard service on many of the busiest beaches in England and Wales.

Central to the life saving service provided by the RNLI is its fleet of custom-built boats. Since April 2009, the hulls for its ‘Tamar’ class of Lifeboats have been built in the RNLI’s dedicated facility in Lymington, Hampshire. The hull of the Tamar comprises a glass and carbon fibre reinforced composite that demands both specialist boat-building skills to fabricate and large process ovens to cure the resins.

Much of the preparation of the hulls involves manual sanding, which naturally produces a lot of dust. This is despite the fact each sanding machine is linked directly to an extraction system and, of course, some of the dust finds its way onto operator clothing.

To remove this dust, operators were previously using compressed air nozzles. Recognising this practice as being extremely dangerous, Craig Bunn, Health and Safety Manager sought and found a safe alternative – Air Control Industries’ ‘JetBlack’, a blower powered personnel de-dusting system installed in a purpose-built cubicle.

ACI’s JetBlack delivers a high volume of air at low pressure (2 psi) that can even be aimed directly at the skin. It is used widely by companies with applications that generate dust which can be deposited on employees’ clothes.

The cubicle is a new addition to the options offered with the JetBlack. It can be supplied with an extraction fan which can be easily linked to a central extraction system or a stand alone dust collection unit. This prevents clothes being re-coated by airborne dust whilst also drawing it downwards from the user’s eyes and mouth. Air enters the cubicle via an inlet in the ceiling and the dust is collected in a 157 litre receptacle beneath the floor.

“Compressed air is dangerous – in fact it can kill,” said Craig Bunn. “When we initially suggested a safer, dedicated dust blow-off booth for cleaning clothing people here thought we were mad! However, a few months after the booth was installed everyone now uses it on a regular basis and it is accepted throughout the entire company.”

Britvic Improves Bottle Drying Efficiency, Boosts Throughput and Saves on Energy with New Dryer

On a poster in Britvic’s premises in Leeds it says, “Our vision in Production is to become the World Leader in soft drink manufacture by 2012”. It will involve Britvic evaluating every stage of the production process if this goal is to be achieved.

One step in attaining this goal is the recent installation of a new bottle drying system that is helping to minimise downtimes to maximise production output whilst also reducing energy consumption.

Previously, there were two identical drying units installed in series on the 36,000 bottles/hr line in order to dry the bottles to ensure effective label adhesion. As well as not fulfilling this requirement effectively, the machines did not incorporate bottle guide rails so there was a recurrent problem of bottles falling over causing line stoppages, lost production and product waste. These ‘qualities’ resulted in moisture build-up inside the bottle dryers and product deposits on the bottles. The situation was made worse by the fact the units were not easy to clean.

These two units have now been replaced by a single ‘LNL’ unit from Air Control Industries (ACI) of Chard. This LNL features ACI’s unique ‘JetPlate’ plenum air delivery system. This plenum system enables air to be delivered close to the bottles, whilst at the same time acting as guide rails to promote bottle stability during travel through the LNL, thereby helping to maximise throughput.

The LNL is a totally enclosed stainless steel unit with polycarbonate inspection windows. The blower unit is mounted on top of the bottle dryer enclosure to permit the use of adjustable mounting legs to facilitate installation – even as a retrofit - and for easy all round cleaning.

This version of ACI’s LNL with JetPlates is also able to handle all the different bottle sizes handled at the Leeds Britvic plant, from the 125 ml size for mixers up to the 750 ml bottle for J2O, without requiring adjustment.

With this installation, all these benefits are complemented by significant energy savings. This is because one blower-powered unit is replacing two, halving energy costs.

“The previous system was a nightmare,” said Mick Wigham, Engineering Team Leader, Leeds. “Production hold-ups, ineffective drying, complicated set-up and fiddly to clean design, all combined to undermine efficiency. In contrast, the ACI bottle dryer enables us maximise throughput with no issues relating to the bottle drying function and it’s also easy to switch product runs.”