Located in the foothills of Vermont's Green Mountains, K & E Plastics has been fabricating custom plastic products for a wide range of industries since 1965. In addition to machining, K & E provides a variety of services including deburring, grinding, painting, tumbling, and engraving.

Expansion Requires New Dust Collectors

After increasing its number of CNC machines, K & E realized its existing dust collectors were no longer sufficient. The new machines required 18,000 cfm of air volume to operate; the existing dust collection system was only rated for 3,000 cfm.

The inadequate dust collection system was adding unnecessary time to the machining process, since workers had to spend between 30 and 45 seconds cleaning the work surface after each piece was machined, before the next part could be loaded. With each machine performing 1,000 cycles per day, even a few wasted seconds could significantly hurt the plant's productivity.

To complicate matters, K & E's facility design presented space restrictions that would impact the purchasing decision. The larger size and odd shapes of the dust created in the plastics machining process requires the high horsepower of a cyclone dust collector; however, cyclone collectors require more space than K & E had available.

After extensive research, including a survey of shop personnel, K & E executives began searching for a dust collection system that would accomplish the following:

• Provide sufficient cfm capabilities to allow the equipment and operators to function at peak efficiency


• Handle the varying shapes and sizes of dust particles created in plastics machining


• Reduce air noise to below 80 dB


• Allow K & E to return warm, clean air into the facility to save on energy costs


• Reduce time and effort associated with the removal of collected dust.

A Customized Solution

After an extensive evaluation process, K & E chose to work with United Air Specialists (UAS). Their UAS rep and UAS engineers worked closely to customize a dust collection system that provided the efficiencies and performance that K & E required within its space limitations.

To handle the wide range of particle shapes and sizes without adding horsepower and size, UAS developed a modified version of the SFC downward flow cartridge dust collection system. By adding an extended dirty air plenum to the SFC, it provided a single inlet to the collector and allowed the cartridges to accept a wide range of particle shapes and sizes without the added space and horsepower usually required. This customized unit also provided all the advantages of the SFC downward flow cartridge dust collection system, including patented pulse cleaning technology, greater air capacity, and quick and easy maintenance.

The customized SFC dust collector from UAS was the only product available that met all of K & E's criteria. In a head-to-head comparison with competitive equipment, UAS also came out on top in the following areas:

• Responsiveness of UAS sales and support staff


• Lower maintenance costs


• Availability of aftermarket replacement filters


• Better warranty


• More competitive cost


• Smaller footprint of unit


• Thousands of dollars in freight savings.

Positive Results

Eric Broderson, general manager of K & E Plastics, is very pleased to have found a dust collection system that meets all the criteria. Operators report a cleaner work environment, air noise has decreased and the company is saving energy costs by returning warm, clean air into the facility.

The UAS dust collection system has also had a measurable impact on the plant's profitability. The 30-45 seconds workers used to spend cleaning their work area between parts has decreased to 10 seconds.

"When you figure that we're saving 20 seconds from each cycle time, times 12 machines and 1,000 cycles per day, the system's expense is more than made up for in increased profitability," said Broderson.

While production has gone up, maintenance costs have gone down. The SFC's "Quickseal" release door and horizontal filter tracks allow for fast cartridge filter removal. The design of the SFC also allows for easier unloading of collected dust from the 55 gal storage drums. While this process once took about 3 ½ hours, it now takes less than 15 minutes.