Filtermist’s new, 30,000 ft2
distribution centre in Telford.
Inset: managing director James
Stansfi eld (L) with Manufacturing
Technologies Association CEO
James Selka
Some 90% of the products we make are
exported.” The company’s oil mist activities
have been boosted by the Absolent range,
too. Says Stans eld: “We’ve got the best oil
mist collection range globally, and we’re now
selling that into the UK.”
The other side of the business, Filtermist
Systems, has a broader offer. “We’ve
brought on board dust extraction and fume
extraction, and so we are becoming a clean
air solutions company. So instead of relying
just on oil mist for our business, we are now
going into a factory in any type of industry,
whether it’s a machine shop, a bakery or
pharmaceutical company, and providing a
clean air solution. So, if you look at the
acquisitions we’ve made, we’ve bought
several projects companies, Multi Fan being
the rst, and then we’ve got other ones and
merged them in. So these are companies
that can go out and look at a factory and say,
‘well, you’re going to need this, this and
this’. They will draw all the designs, source
all the parts, hopefully using our hardware,
but if not somebody else’s hardware, and
then install it. Basically, providing a complete
turnkey package. It will include everything,
including the electrical control panels,
hardware, ducting, commissioning and then
we will provide services there off. So we can
do that not just for all oil mist but for any air.
This is our differentiation against the
competition.
“Because, in the UK especially, this type
of industry is quite fragmented. There are a
lot of smaller operations doing this fullservice
installation. We are now going down
that route and doing it ourselves with our
own equipment, where possible, but the key
thing is that we will t the right unit for the
right job. So if we need to go elsewhere,
even to our competition, we will.”
This will be a national activity, but the UK
is effectively modelling a type of operation
that could be rolled out by Absolent globally,
the managing director adds. Under the
Filtermist Systems umbrella, the idea now is
to get the various acquired companies’ sales
forces cross-selling products, although they
will retain their brand names and associated
specialist knowledge.
On that last point, Stans eld says:
“We are learning that there’s a huge amount
of knowledge in the extraction industry that
is leaving the sector. We’ve got to make sure
that we’ve got the skillset. Something we’re
really working on at the moment is making
sure that people who may be looking at
retiring will mentor people who are coming
through, because the loss of specialist
knowledge is a huge risk.”
Intelligent technology
Industry 4.0/Internet of Things (IoT) technology development is being managed at group
level and there are elements creeping into the product range already. Made under license
in the UK by FIltermist is US product Eco Gate, a system that detects when a machine
has stopped working. It will close the damper, which reduces air ow, then turn down the
fan, which means that less energy is used.
Some Filtermist units already boast monitoring technology, too. F Monitor –
a system that advises machine operators when the extraction unit needs servicing and
warns them of any potential blockages to avoid reducing the effectiveness of the system;
and F Monitor 2+, which has additional functionality to measure vibration and motor
temperature via a sensor that attaches directly to the Filtermist motor. Both models use a
traf c light system of warning lights to alert machine operators of the need for servicing or
about lter blockage.
www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets November 2019 35
/www.machinery.co.uk