£2.2 million investment to double manufacturing capacity for Nuaire

£2.2 million investment

July 2012

Nuaire, the market leader in the design and manufacture of commercial and domestic energy efficient ventilation systems, has signalled confidence in its future growth by making its largest ever investment in its manufacturing plant.

With grant assistance from the Welsh Government, Nuaire has invested in a £2.2 million sheet metal processing system to replace its ageing machines. The new plant will more than double the company's existing capacity and boast a range of new features to transform its manufacturing systems. Nuaire annually processes 75,000 sheets of metal for use in its ventilation products, including galvanised, mild steel, aluzinc and plastic coated steel, totalling 2,200 tonnes. Output has increased by 28% in the last 18 months and this additional capacity will support the company's continuing growth initiatives in all markets. The two new punching machines have an integrated automatic handling line that is linked to a state of the art storage and retrieval system. The complete facility allows the storage and retrieval of raw sheet metal blanks, delivery to the automatic punching machines, and return to the store of punched components before folding, or delivery of the components direct to the operator for immediate use. Commenting on the investment,

Nuaire's manufacturing director, Alun Jones, said: "This investment will transform our manufacturing systems here at Nuaire. The new machinery will bring greater capacity, higher flexibility and lower costs, which, when combined, will allow us to offer further improvements in delivery performance and quality both to our existing and new customers. "Quick delivery of accurately punched and folded sheet metal panels is essential in delivering the high levels of quality and on-time delivery that our customers have come to expect from Nuaire. Our entire manufacturing operation is focussed on achieving industry leading levels of on-time delivery performance, and exceptionally high levels of product reliability to support our trusted brand.

"By making such a significant investment at a time of such economic uncertainty, we are demonstrating our confidence in future growth while also ensuring our new processes have a positive effect on the environment." Minister for Business, Edwina Hart commented: "I am delighted that through our Single Investment Fund we have been able to play a part in helping this truly innovative business expand its manufacturing plant. The Welsh Government recognises the strategic importance of Nuaire and its vital contribution to the regional economy. "Nuaire is a great example of a confident Welsh business that is investing in its future now, despite the challenging economic conditions, and I wish them every success."

As a responsible manufacturer, Nuaire considers the environmental impact of every major change programme and this project will deliver enormous benefits in this area. The automatic segregation of scrap materials to reduce contamination and the more efficient use of each sheet will deliver lower scrap rates and higher scrap purity.

The new machines also use servo-electric technology rather than the hydraulic system used on previous machines, which means that energy is only consumed when actually processing components. Machine electricity consumption will fall from 760,000kWh/year to 55,000kWh/year, a reduction of over 90%. The proposed machines integrate fully with Nuaire's manufacturing and CADCAM Systems, and include automatic dynamic nesting, which will considerably improve material utilisation. The extended storage will allow a wider range of raw material blank sizes to be stocked increasing efficiency from 85% to 90% and resulting in a reduction in scrap rates. The new machines support an extended tool range constantly available on the machines.

This feature gives the flexibility to further optimise the performance by selecting more complex single hit tools to produce frequently required profiles rather than multiple hits to achieve the same result. New features available for consideration include: threaded holes, hinges, louvered ventilation slots, inter-locking tags and strengthening ribs - all features of great interest to Nuaire's design team. Nuaire manufactures a wide range of ventilation and associated control equipment from its site in Caerphilly.

The company, which was established in 1963, employs 400 people involved in the design, manufacture, sales and distribution of industry leading products serving residential, commercial and industrial customers in UK and international markets.