DONALDSON Australasia has provided the vital waste handling system and engineering to facilitate a win/win recycling loop between one of Australia's largest dedicated sheet-fed print communications businesses, Penfold Buscombe and Visy Recycling.
Dominique Ollitrault, the Donaldson consultant overseeing the recently completed project at Penfold Buscombe, designed and fitted the system as part of the printer's routine upgrade to meet rapid expansion in business and maintain environmental standards.
Visy Recycling subsidised the project to ensure an uninterrupted supply line of raw material it can purchase for its dedicated recycling plants.
Mr Ollitrault says Penfold Buscombe originally committed to upgrade this facility at this time not just to preserve valuable resources but to maintain a very clean working environment for its employees.
"The new waste paper handling system has been installed to replace the existing system, which was not coping with the increasing workload," said Mr Ollitrault.
"It is now a 24/7 operation creating offcuts from books and magazines that run off stitching lines and folding processes, as well as waste from general printing, cutting and binding.
"The idea was to stay one step ahead of any blockages and machine downtime to avoid potential labour allocation to pick up mess or empty full bins, plus it ensures workers don't face a dusty environment near the compactor.
"Our solution was to install a system comprising a separator AMSP35, rotary valve RV750, two paper trim fans (1 x 75kW, 1 x 30kW), Dalamatic DLM 3/5/15 dust collector and a 55 kW clean air fan,” said Mr Ollitrault.
"The system has been designed to allow an extra capacity of volume (30%) for growth and future additions to the shop floor.
"It easily copes with output from one of the fastest growers in the printing industry, yet currently it only needs about 2/3 capacity to handle all the tasks."
The system is facilitating waste handling of product from seven presses, seven folders, three stitching lines, one mailer and four guillotines.
With the way business has been expanding, it was clear the old system wasn't adequately designed to cope with volume, or to perform satisfactorily at the discharge point.
Now everything has been replaced, including the ducting, and the new collector contains a sensor to eliminate any potential overflow that could halt work.
Penfold Buscombe's Purchasing Manager, Anthony Cook, says paper-trim handling is very different to dust control, hence specific solutions were implemented by Donaldson.
"Matters such as installing the right size and configuration of ducting become increasingly important, such as on discharge points where high volume is being handled,” he said.
"We also required a separator - an air stream - for trim that could be as much as one metre long. This replaced a cyclone, shows better energy efficiency and is far more compact.
"Overall system performance is highly vital in the middle of the night when labour resources are at their lowest and any problem would have meant a slowdown in production.
"This new solution has improved productivity by about 20% and potential downtime is much less of a concern compared to what it was before," said Mr Cook.
Visy Recycling collects the waste from Penfold Buscombe and moves it to its bulk centre in western Sydney for sorting and compressing into one tonne blocks, before shipping to various sites for re-use.
For example, 'white liner' is manufactured and then used for the exterior of cardboard boxes for printing purposes. Lower grade mills are recycled to make for cardboard.
Plastic film is also collected from the site, which is exported and passed onto companies specialising in plastic product manufacture overseas.
Richard Adams, NSW Commercial Manager at Visy Recycling, says the example set at Penfold Buscombe shows there is a very real commercial advantage for any site to put leftover resources through a recycling process rather than into general waste.
"It actually costs less than putting it out with general waste and most products can be sorted into various grades for recycling," said Mr Adams.
"From Penfold Buscombe, we retrieve about 200 tonnes per month, so to emphasise the importance of recycling industrial leftovers we always consider subsidising a scenario that can provide volume and quality.
"Although predominantly recognised as a paper recycling company, we have expanded into other areas such as glass and plastic, which undergo value added processes before being moved to specialist users of these materials.”