SAM Mouldings, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of interior and exterior MDF architectural mouldings, has benefitted from dust extraction equipment supplied by Dustraction.
Founded in 1990 by Sam and Julienne McCrea, the family-run business is situated in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and is renowned for its high-quality architectural mouldings, from skirting and cladding to soffits and fascia.
The company is proud of its continued investment in product quality, delivery and service packages, and indeed in the efficiency and environment within its factories and offices. So, when it came to upgrading its existing dust extraction system, the company turned to the well-established, Leicester-based brand, Dustraction.
The immediate need was for an upgrade to SAM Mouldings woodwaste extraction system. In order to enhance the existing extraction system, Dustraction’s Steve Matuska was called upon to install a new external cyclo-filter, which would serve Weinig moulders, beam saws and various other machines, such as X-cut saws, double-end tenoners and CNC routers.
The specification was also to allow for the future addition of extra moulding and sawing capacity. The total air volume to be handled by the enhanced systems was to be almost 76,000m3/hr, plus 45% future spare capacity in the Cyclofilter.
Dustruction’s solution was the Dustrax 4X9 Cyclo filter, which would be located externally in the yard. The cyclonic filter body would be manufactured from 3mm thick mild steel sheet. Mounted within the body would be a perforated cylindrical thimble housing the filter sleeves, which would be manufactured from 450 gm/m² polyester felt.
Once fitted, the waste was to be tangentially blown into the filter chamber, and 95 per cent of the material cyclonically separated before reaching the filter media. Air passes through the filter element, leaving the remaining 5 per cent of the particulate to cake on the outside of the filter media.
At a pre-set pressure drop across the filter media, a short burst of compressed air is released down the inside of the filter sleeve in the opposite direction to the air flow to dislodge the accumulated dust cake.
In a typical reverse jet cleaning cycle, rapid-acting diaphragm valves are triggered by solenoid-operated pilot valves at intervals in a continuous sequence by an electronic controller.
By employing circular sleeves, the tendency to bridge is reduced, and the amount of sleeve deformation is restricted to give a good cake release without significant cloth movement. The filter is suitable for operating on a continuous basis, as there are very few moving parts, and for this reason, maintenance is minimised.
The waste from the Cyclo filter would be extracted from the base of the unit and conveyed to the existing Biomass bunker, or diverted to the existing externally mounted trailers via two new pneumatic two-way valves.
All the work was carried out by Dustraction in one unbroken visit, minimising downtime for SAM Mouldings. Two years on, SAM Mouldings hasn’t experienced any issues with the system, and is highly satisfied with the service and products supplied.
