Dust Extraction and Fume Extraction specialists. Whether it's Downflow Booths, mobile filter units, or Hood Positioning Devices (Extraction Arms), flextraction have products to suit your dust and fume extraction requirements.

Minimising Flour and Ingredients Dust at Manchester Bakery Group

Posted January 19th, 2010

To control flour and ingredients dust at the point of weighing in preparation for onward baking, Martins Foods Group in Manchester has invested in two 4m downflow booths, designed to contain dust over large areas of emission, from Flextraction Ltd, supplier and manufacturer of Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) products for dust and fume extraction in the work-place.

Downflow Booth at Martins Bakery

Martins Foods Group, one of Manchester’s longest established bakeries founded in 1922, has a modern 50,000ft² central bakery in Newton Heath producing and supplying over 150 bakery and sandwich products every day to the Group’s 28 retail outlets in the Manchester area.   The Group also has a 30,000ft² factory including a large holding freezer in Radcliffe, Manchester supplying frozen bakery products cakes and desserts to supermarkets and Foodservice outlets.

Flextraction’s own modular design, 304 stainless steel downflow booths with an acoustically enclosed fan to minimise overall noise level, operate on a re-circulatory airflow principle with a clean evenly distributed down flow of air at 0.5m/second.  Extraction is via low level primary roughing filters and secondary bag filters and this then provides down flow via ceiling mounted 99.95% filtration efficient HEPA (High Efficiency Particle Arrestor) filters suppressing any dust downwards away from the operator’s breathing zone.  Pressure indicating devices continually monitor the extraction performance, whilst automatically controlling the 2 x 2.2kW direct driven variable speed fans to maintain optimum operating conditions.

Louvered grilles in the lower rear wall capture the airborne contaminants.  Because the booth operates using continuous re-circulation of the air within the booth, no airborne contaminates can escape into the external environment.  Their modular designs allows a size to be manufactured to suit the application and they are found in a multitude of industries in addition to bakeries, these include dye and paint manufacturers as well as pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers.

Neil Martin, Managing Director, Martins Foods Group said: “I first came across a Flextraction downflow booth during a visit to the Birds Bakery in Derby.  I was impressed with the dust free conditions in the weighing area and although at the time we were already undertaking good practice to keep the dust levels as low as possible, I realised we could improve our own working environment to the betterment of our employees, as well as the Company.

As a major bakery group in the Manchester area, we have to ensure that our operations meet with the most stringent health and safety standards and this investment has enhanced those standards.

After discussions with Flextraction, we decided in 2008, to invest in a 4m booth, basically because it fitted into the size of our Newton Heath operations and once installed, we immediately saw environmental improvements.  We made dust emission checks and found that the employees weighing up and tipping flour or ingredients into removable bowl mixers had the lowest emission levels of anywhere in the bakery, which was excellent.  In early 2009 we decided to invest in another one for our Radcliffe operations with exactly the same results.

Both booths have been an excellent investment providing a much cleaner working environment and require very little maintenance, we only have to replace the easy to access filters, which is a very easy task.”

New Hood Positioning Devices For Better Fume and Dust Extraction

Posted January 5th, 2010

flextraction Ltd, supplier and manufacturer of Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) products has launched a new range of totally self supporting Hood Positioning Devices (HPD), the ‘Flextractor HPD, Extended HPD, Mini HPD and Flextender HPD, all incorporating new mounting brackets, hoods and hoses for the capture and extraction of industrial dusts and fumes including hazardous and corrosive fumes at the point of source.

These HPDs have been designed to be used in a multitude of industrial applications, including surface grinding, welding, product tipping and drum filling as well as food processing and all manufacturing applications, where dust and fumes are emitted.  Importantly, they meet HSE requirements for the correct positioning and design of LEV hoods and are totally self supporting mechanisms providing stability and accuracy in the carrying and positioning of a wide range of hoods in different sizes, weights and designs including individual customised hoods plus hose combinations.  Without any internal obstructions, there is no wear, corrosion, flow restrictions or solids built up within the hoses.

The twin support mechanism incorporates two springs to provide a much greater return force than in previous models, producing a lighter as well as a more balanced feel to the arm, especially when manipulating it into the correct extraction position.  This increased return force, as well as an increased surface area around the central pivot, enables the design of fully customised hoods to be added to the HPD.

The NEW Hood Positioning Device from flextraction Ltd

Other features include a rear casing that is fully enclosed giving an improved aesthetic appearance and protection against dirt ingress, a rear boom extension gives a 270° working radius and a new 360° rotating swivel hood enables more accurate hood positioning, whilst quick release clips are used to attach a range of flexible hoses such as standard PVC, FD approved polyurethane, high temperature, chemical and solvent resistant as well as ATEX certified hoses.

Options include tubed, ATEX compliance and stainless steel models plus a fitted electronic airflow indicator.

Flextractor HPD’s are suitable for standard wall or stanchion mounting, as well as upward and downward swivel, joist and ceiling mountings and are available in five standard lengths between 1,5m and 4m.  Optional solid tubed sections in the same diameters and with flexible joints are also available to further reduce the risk of solids build up.

The Extended HPD provides the user with the additional option of a longer reach up to a maximum 8m. The wall or bench mounted mini HPD is available in three standard diameters – 75mm, 100mm and 250mm with either 1m or 1.5 m reaches.

The Flextender HPD has a telescopic extraction arm giving the user a 1,200 – 1,650mm reach, especially useful in low headroom or limited space applications. Flextractor HPDs and Flextender HPDs are available in either 75mm, 100mm, 125mm, 150mm and 200mm diameters.

A range of hoods is available in a wide variety of designs including bell mouth, flare, fish tail, flat screen and custom designed. These are available in epoxy coated, stainless steel, polypropylene and ATEX versions.

New Industrial Downdraught Filter Bench from flextration Ltd

Posted December 4th, 2009

flextraction Ltd, the Melton Mowbray, supplier and manufacturer of Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) products has launched the FB70011, a new downdraught filter bench to control airborne particles from applications such as sanding, de-burring, finishing, linishing, fettling as well as ingredient weighing in the food and agricultural industry plus other dust forming applications, thereby improve the working environment and helping to eliminate potential respiratory health problems for employees.

flextraction Downdraught Bench

The FB70011 downdraught bench complies with Health & Safety Guidline 258 covering the control of airborne contaminants at work.  It features an inverter (variable frequency drive control) to regulate the operating speed of the single phase 230V, 50/60Hz, 500w high power backward curve centrifugal fan producing an air volume of 2,300m³/hr.

Other features include filter gauges with spring loaded filter clamp mechanisms and filter full indicators, a G4 pleated filter for efficient 0-500Pa gauge pre/primary filtration to remove any particles within the airstreams and 0-1000Pa HEPA Filter, both with ‘filter full’ indicators and an optional HEPA cartridge to remove submicron particulate with an efficiency up to 99.9%.

It also includes a motor fault warning light, 3 sided enclosure, levelling feet and an on/off push button control with a ‘power on’ light.  It measures 1,200mm high, 1,060mm wide and 740mm deep and it weighs 180 kg. It is also mobile having swivel and brake casters.