BA Components - Cookstown

BA Components, a Cookstown based company, were one of the runners up in the Belfast Telegraph Business Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement. The company has been in business for 13 years have pushed hard to establish itself as a leading player in the field of manufacturing and selling made to measure cabinet doors to the kitchen and bedroom sector.

Environmental impact was at the top of the list in the design for the recent £3.5m factory expansion. As they want to remain at this site long term, the design and position of additional factory buildings became crucial to the project. The upgrade of the recycling furnace and boiler was going to create additional noise pollution, so it was decided to invest in specialist noise suppressing insulation and re position the construction site for a new climate controlled materials store to form a “curtain” to contain the noise. Through this they have been able to overcome the potential noise problems and beat current and impending regulations in this area.

BA components take an holistic approach to their environmental responsibilities and have put in place a number of systems allowing a more efficient, cost effective environmentally friendly production.

Key areas of improvement:

• 100% of the waste wood produced is used to feed a wood burning furnace and boiler system generating hot water, heat for the factory and offices, heat for the climate controlled material stores and heat for the two drying ovens on the production lines. This reuse prevents 20 tonnes of waste wood going to landfill or other disposal per week, and makes a cost saving of £40k per year on purchases of heating oil!
• 100 % of foil waste is recycled by a firm in England , who make other PVC furniture pieces with it. This equates to an average of 3 tonnes per week.

Waste packaging of raw materials coming into the factory is recycled and where possible the recycled cardboard material is used to supplement the company’s own packaging. Any suppliers’ pallets and any suppliers’ cardboard packaging which can be reused as packing materials for their own finished goods are salvaged and help by forming additional protective padding.

In total, less than 1% of packing material coming into the factory is sent for landfill or other outside disposal.

A solvent based glue has been replaced with a water-based glue which provides an adhesion which has almost surpassed that of the old solvent based product. The advantages associated with this new safe product, are evident in the working environment, and in the disposal and cleaning down cycle. The use of robotic gluing has allowed a cost savings on glue purchases of between 45 – 50% from the normal hand spraying methods. These conditions surpass the latest Solvent Emissions Directive 199/13/EC calling for the substitution of risk phrase solvents with a less harmful substance.

In the Office Environment

The amount of paper being used has been drastically cut by installing an electronic system which stores invoices on read only secure files. This allows invoice information to be retrieved much faster and, once on screen can be faxed electronically (in accordance with company policy to adopt universal electronic faxing, and use of e-mail to send memos and notices) to the customer without having to print an additional hard copy. Customers may also use the interactive website to access their invoices themselves. This electronic storage has improved customer communications and response times, whilst dramatically cutting the amount of paper used. Any waste paper which is produced is shredded and recycled. The electronic system meets all current accounts legislation.

As very few hard copies are actually printed which means the 5 office printers use less toner cartridges, however any empty cartridges are sent for recycling/ refilling.

Running the Factory

Electricity is a major financial expenditure not to mention the environmental cost! BA components have put in place a number of initiatives to reduce this cost; for example all office areas, corridors and washrooms are fitted with light sensor switches which only activate, i.e. switch-on, when there is movement.

They also run their own generator at peak times which alleviates a load on the traditional power generating stations. Variable speed drives have also been installed where possible on the production lines which can show an energy cost saving of over 40%. Sensor switches which switch off conveyors when there is s rest period or break in production are in operation and all factory machinery and office equipment will revert to “sleep” or standby mode when not in constant use. Every little helps!

The above initiatives demonstrate BA Components commitment to both the industry and the environment of Northern Ireland