Coastline Kitchens use Eximo’s Optiflow unit for waste handling applications
Eximo’s Optiflow unit used by Coastline Kitchens
Coastline
Kitchens in Perth have implemented
Eximo ’s Optiflow technology as an important component of the initial stage of their revamp to their manufacturing systems.
This manufacturer has made key changes to the production systems that provide major improvements in efficiency, occupational health and safety, environmental control and energy efficiency.
Coastline Kitchens supply kitchen and bathroom cabinets to developers and project builders in the West Australian market.
The company has installed the new Optiflow technology for waste handling applications and at the same time has moved from a beam saw operation into a nested based manufacturing platform.
By moving away from normal waste handling technology and implementing Optiflow technology, the company handles all wood-dust and air born particles using much lower pressures, thereby using a lot less power than what was previously required by the extraction system.
Furthermore, the price of Optiflow through the technology’s specialist representative in WA, Marc Environmental, was about twice that of other technologies quoted, yet Coastline saw how lower energy consumption equated to economic sense in the medium term.
General Manager of Coastline Kitchens, Willem Vanderven says that the investment has ensured the company maintains their commitment to using the latest in environmental and OH&S safety systems for their employees.
Coastline Kitchens had used a standard bag collection system with a 45kW motor, which relied on the industry norm for high-powered suction of dust from areas where the machines were in operation.
But recently, they have shifted into nested-based manufacturing on machining centres run by powerful software rather than old-fashioned beam saws. With nested based manufacturing; they needed a lot more negative pressure to remove the waste, which the old extraction system could not provide.
The Optiflow technology draws and captures about 1.5m³ of wood dust per hour. Optiflow also gives a lot of flexibility to move machines around on the production line floor.
Integrated with an overall pressure-driven extraction system, Optiflow is a unique concept built especially for dust extraction and transportation. It creates a negative pressure chamber across an entire factory or processing plant to eliminate the total static pressure of the whole system by as much as 50% and thus it provides a power consumption advantage as it is proportionate to the total static pressure.
After waste material is suctioned by each intake, everything except the finest dusts is directed to the Optiflow chamber. This chamber is an enclosed, low-pressure area that uses a moving conveyor on its floor. This waste material, the majority of what has been collected at intake points, lands on this moving conveyor and is directed straight to collection bins, cutters, shredders or compactors, without going to filters.
Built from strong 2mm galvanised steel with a low speed conveyor within, the entire Optiflow unit is strong and robust as well as requires low maintenance.
Despite building about 3000 kitchens each year, Coastline Kitchens were able to completely upgrade their entire system without affecting the production and part of that improvement was Eximo’s Optiflow system.
The Optiflow technology allows them to regulate energy expenditure. This unit also enables to maintain a clean workplace.
In simple terms, Optiflow unit is a ‘vacuum conveyor’ system that utilises low pressure for operating advantage and energy savings. Because the flow rate is very low inside the Optiflow, any wood dust for Coastline’s processes does not even reach the filter in the first place.
It is the focal point of a complete extraction system that essentially handles the larger bits and pieces by dropping these particulates onto a conveyor within a low-pressure chamber.
It also eliminates the potential for clogging and downtime, the need for cutters to refine large waste, does away with complicated separating, and adds to the overall profits on the company balance sheet. The Optiflow unit also enables to reduce the downtime. Every application of Optiflow saves a minimum of 50% in power costs.
In the event of a pressure drop anywhere in the Optiflow system, a signal is sent to the system’s frequency inverter to optimise the pressure; therefore even more than 50% is saved.
Optiflow can be configured indoors or outdoors, suspended from ceiling structures, or positioned on pylons based on the individual requirements and footprints.
22-Oct-2008