Spaulding Composites Co, Inc has been a factor in the manufacturing scene in Rochester, NH, for all of the 20th century and more. Founded in 1873 in Townsend, MA, the company began as a producer of vulcanized fiber and fiberboard for use in the shoe industry. Today, the company produces composites and high pressure laminates for markets including power generation, electrical distribution, cryogenics, aerospace, health imaging, and water purification.
In addition to the New Hampshire division, Spaulding has a material division in DeKalb, IL and a glass-bonded ceramic division in Clifton, NJ. Typical high pressure laminates produced by the company include glass/epoxy, paper/phenolic, canvas/phenolic, and carbon/epoxy.
ISO 9002 certified, Spaulding has had a longstanding, airborne dust concern, which was at least partially solved by the addition of three bag house dust collectors in the Rochester facility in the 1970s. While this system was originally sufficient to draw from all areas exhibiting airborne dust, the need for more up-to-date machine tools, particularly a new Fadal vertical machining center, created a problem that could not be solved with the existing dust collectors. The fully enclosed Fadal machine would create enormous quantities of fiberglass dust, which should be drawn directly from inside the machine tool. Ideally, the dust collector would be strong enough to collect from two CNC machines, since a second such machine will be the first large machine tool of the new millennium for Spaulding Composites.
A bit more than two years ago, Spaulding asked Jim McCormick, vice president-sales of Clean Aire Technology, Belmont, NH, to review the dust problems associated with the new machine tools. Realizing that a high efficiency cyclone dust collector with afterfilter bags is better suited for separating or filtering large particles, such as fiberglass, than a filter-type dust collector alone, McCormick suggested a Sternvent Model CYA2407 high efficiency 7.5 hp cyclone dust collector. Sternvent specializes in small to medium size industrial dust collectors (1,000-15,000 CFM) which include high efficiency cyclones, compact shaker units with manual or motorized shaker, Jet-Pulse bag and cartridge units, and oil mist collectors used in the woodworking, metalworking, and chemical industries.
The cyclone, with two capture drums, silencer, and a 383 sq ft afterfilter to allow recirculation of the filtered air, was installed inside the plant in reasonable proximity to the first new machining center. It gathers an estimated 5 pounds of fiberglass dust per shift. More than double that amount will probably be collected when the two machine tools are installed and operating on their own multi-shift schedule.
The operation of the first Fadal machine has been clearly enhanced by the Sternvent dust collector, which can double its dust capacity with only another stretch of piping to the proposed new machine.
"The dust collector is a good fit next to the Fadal machine and fits in well with other equipment which do turning, milling, punching, progressive dies, and more," says Michael Harmon, manufacturing engineer at Spaulding. "It allows the new production machinery to run at full capacity without added airborne dust capacity."
