Manufacturing Process & Waste Management
Introduction
Ensuring that timber purchased comes from a renewable and responsibly managed source is important when it comes to reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing. However, once you have the timber it’s important that you optimise it’s use in such a way that reduces the waste and usage to a minimum whilst maintaining the integrity and quality of the finished staircase.
However, some waste is inevitably created, and disposing of this in the most environmentally efficient way is important to us as a business. Below are just some of the steps taking by us to reduce and manage waste.
Manufacturing
One of the most important things to do in order to reduce waste is to ensure that we use the minimum amount of timber.
One advantage of being a larger stair manufacturer is the ability to group jobs into jobs with similar requirements so components can be nested to product less waste.
Gluing Op Of Timber Components
Some timber components need to be glued up, on more complex staircase strings for example, as well as timber winder treads. We do this by planning it out in the most material efficient way possible on our computerised system before the stairs even enter the factory as shown in the example to the right.
Once the stairs enter our factory we enter enter the lengths of the PSE into an automated cross cut saw which cuts the timber to length based on the most material efficient way.
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Machining Of Sheet Components
With components manufactured from sheet material such as MDF and Plywood, we nest each component on a board.
We do this by taking a batch of staircases, and combining all of the sheet material components and then nesting them onto the sheet material in the most efficient way possible in order to minimise waste.
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Waste Management
Sawdust Management
Stage 1 - Extraction: We use a modern dust extraction system which is fully plumbed into each machine with pressure gauges to detect problems, this extracts sawdust from each machine and puts it all into one place.
Stage 2 - Briquetting: Once the sawdust is gathered, we put it into a briquetting machine and manufacture combustable briquettes, these are then sold or used by us.
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Disposal Of Offcuts And Sawdust
We keep our waste down to a minimum in order to reduce environmental impact and costs. However, any offcuts and sawdust which has been turned into briquettes is then burnt in our clean burning fires to heat our factory. This means we do not use any gas or electric to heat our building.
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