Energy use in cabinet production reduced by 50%
Canadian kitchen manufacturer expands furniture production with MultiStar filter system
Woodland Horizon Ltd. has expanded its production in Drayton / Ontario in 2023. Sustainable and energy-efficient production was particularly important to the manufacturer of high-quality kitchen and bathroom furnishings when they started planning for a major upgrade to their dust collection system.
Largely automated production has been implemented in the production facility including an MES system to schedule production, do capacity planning, track and sort parts in production and manage shipping and inventory. Using state-of-the-art CNC routers, robotic material handling, robotic sanding, edge banding machines and automatic spray machines, individually designed cabinetry is manufactured for the North American market.
To ensure that the quality of the furniture parts remained at a consistently high level and that there were no health problems for employees due to dust emissions, it was already clear in the planning phase that reliable extraction of wood dust and chips was crucial.
Taurus Craco Machinery from Brampton / Ontario has been supporting Woodland Horizon for many years and also accompanied the planning of the new dust collection system. Kyle Roseneck (Project Manager Taurus Craco) and (Woodland Horizon) worked together to develop an innovative extraction solution that meets all the requirements of modern production. Electricity and heating costs were reduced by more than 50% compared to the use of conventional technology, machine downtimes were minimized and the disposal processes are now automated. The air quality in the factory is also very good and the workplace standards are met. And at the same time, valuable resources are conserved and competitive advantages are gained by reducing costs.
Höcker Polytechnik disposal for dust and chips
Taurus Craco has been a partner of Höcker Polytechnik GmbH from Germany for many years. It is one of the leading European manufacturers of extraction and filter systems, dedusters, sanding dust extraction, pneumatic conveyor technology, products for surface technology and much more for woodworking and processing, furniture production and many other industries. A particular strength is the combination of all the individual components using sophisticated control technology to create powerful complete solutions.
Today, Woodland Horizon has a powerful MultiStar filter system that extracts all production machines. The Höcker filter works outside of the factory and takes up an area of only approx. 900 ft2. In the upper part of the filter system, four energy-efficient fans deliver an air volume of 65,000 m3/h at negative pressure. A power reserve of 16,250 m3/h can be added later if the operation is expanded. The four fans used with 37 kW motors are frequency-controlled and work in sequence so that the performance can be continuously adapted to the activities in production. This means that only the absolutely necessary ventilation performance is provided.
MultiStar filter system works economically under negative pressure!
Suction under negative pressure is the most energy-efficient variant of suction and places particularly high demands on system planning. Taurus Craco and Höcker Polytechnik have several decades of experience here and have provided well-thought-out pipe routing at Woodland. The filter bags are continuously cleaned using purge air. This process works very quietly, protects the filter material and reduces the energy used for ventilation, as the high-tech filter material can work optimally. The filter was additionally soundproofed and noise emissions were further eliminated.
The dust cleaned in this way falls with the chips into the discharge, where a rotary valve transports the material out. It is then pneumatically conveyed to a container.
14 machines are extracted, each of which is equipped with automatic, PLC-coupled sliders on the extraction system. When the machine is switched on, the slider opens, the control adjusts the ventilation performance and optimal extraction occurs.
Thermal energy is retained and heating costs are reduced
The air containing dust and chips that is extracted in this way also contains valuable heat energy, which is further used at Woodland. The filtration process in the MultiStar extraction system works highly efficiently and enables the cleaned air to be returned to production. This is worthwhile in the colder months, as up to 75% of the heat energy is retained. Heating costs are noticeably reduced.
The design principle of the MultiStar filter systems has been tested for pressure shock resistance and the rotary valves are NFPA compliant. In addition, safety mechanisms such as fire dampers and a filter monitor were implemented in the return air, which monitors the air quality of the returned air.
In the background, the entire system is monitored by a finely tuned control system. The programmers at Höcker Polytechnik have harmoniously networked all components via PLC and coordinated the dependencies in terms of control technology so that the entire extraction and conveying process only requires the absolutely necessary energy. In addition, an energy monitoring system with a status overview was installed. Woodland Horizon can keep an eye on the system status via the web 24/7. This means they can act quickly and avoid unnecessary downtime. The electricity consumption can also be read at any time as a history and actual status. Knowledge and information are the most important levers for reducing costs.
Uwe Rother, senior project manager at Höcker Polytechnik, accompanied the Taurus Craco project from the initial idea to commissioning. For him, the Woodland Horizon project is an important reference project for cabinet production in Canada: “We at Höcker Polytechnik take the needs of our customers very seriously at all times, from the planning phase through implementation and commissioning and also in support after commissioning.”
Author: Heiner Kleine-Wechelmann, Höcker Polytechnik GmbH
