Consider the sources of inlet air to ensure that the ventilation scheme in your factory will work effectively
Whether your factory is relatively airtight or not, you have to consider the fact that nature doesn’t like a vacuum. If you try to extract air from an enclosed space and no air comes in to replace what you are trying to extract, nothing will move. So it’s not enough to install a ventilation system; you also need a path for air inlet. This blog post demonstrates that this needs careful design.
Studies have shown that exposure to natural light can dramatically increase mental alertness, productivity and psychological well-being.
In addition, optimising the use of daylight can lead to significant energy savings. These are all compelling reasons to incorporate good day lighting in the design of your factory, but how do you achieve this?
This Colt advert first featured in the Financial Times almost 40 years ago, and still rings true today!
As the temperature rises during the summer months, it is important to asses your productivity levels. If your factory is too hot, then you will almost certainly suffer losses in production, as well as a whole host of other issues.
When choosing a cooling solution for a factory, it is important not to focus only on the initial investment, but to consider all the elements that make up the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the system.
If you are considering a cooling system for your factory, don’t make the mistake of focusing solely on the initial investment: consider the total cost of ownership of the system and what the critical elements which influence this are.
Natural gravity ventilation is the best cooling solution
The benefits of natural ventilation in large industrial buildings are clear and well accepted: no electricity is needed to operate the system, as it simply uses the energy present in the warm air – and there is plenty of this in a glass factory – and this buoyancy-driven airflow is virtually maintenance free.
The traditional approach to ventilating big production facilities relied on relatively extensive ductwork in a one-size-fits-all type of solution. Nowadays, however, ventilation systems must meet multiple requirements. On the one hand, they must provide a comfortable and productive working environment for production staff, as well as meeting regulatory requirements in terms of internal air quality, temperatures and humidity levels. On the other hand, plant managers demand energy efficiency, low running costs and low environmental impact.
Do you think something is holding back your factory’s productivity? The best thing you can do is a survey of your operation to identify where the issue lies and what you can do to address it.
In this video, Colt experts Paul Langford and Bradley Smith describe the process they follow when carrying out a factory productivity survey, explaining the five steps they run through.
If you are a factory manager you are probably looking for ways to maximise productivity. Getting the right conditions within the working areas could be critical: the right temperature, humidity, air quality and lighting could be the answer to provide a comfortable work environment.
Is there more you could do to improve your factory’s productivity?
It’s well known that productivity at manufacturing plants plummets when temperatures persistently exceed 25C – and that’s a normal summer day. Surveys have shown that every degree above 20C can reduce productivity by as much as 4 percent. That means a rise of just 5 degrees can cut your output by an eye-watering 20 percent.
When the working environment is too hot, people work far less efficiently, morale plunges, and accidents and absenteeism rise. Cooling the factory shop floor is essential to keep productivity levels high - and for the wellbeing of the people working in this environment. But conventional cooling systems are not a viable solution: they are expensive, installation is costly, and so is the energy they use to bring the temperature down to desired levels.