Textile ventilation socks from Euro Air UK are providing heating and cooling at the premises of leading digital print company Real Digital International. Textile ventilation was selected by consulting engineers J E Evans Associates for its ability to maintain a comfortable, draught-free environment with low cost of ownership.
Located in Croydon, Surrey, Real Digital employs leading-edge print processes to offer fast turnaround of printed items. The company boasts the first ever truly scalable digital print process, as well as the world’s largest finishing line, and has the capability to produce a million personalised communications in a day.
The 6500m2 facility includes four large open spaces for printing, finishing, fulfilment and storage. Conditioned air is delivered to each space through textile ventilation systems, arranged in zones that can be operated independently to allow for variable usage of the spaces.
“We have been very pleased with the ventilation system, which maintains a comfortable environment without the draughts and background noise associated with conventional ventilation,” commented Real Digital Chief Executive Peter Rivett. “We were also impressed with the way Euro Air was willing to work closely with us to ensure the system was precisely matched to our needs,” he added.
To optimise air distribution, John Evans of J E Evans Associates specified a system that uses a combination of permeability and directional air flow through nozzles. When the ventilation socks are pressurised, conditioned air passes gently through the weave of the fabric and falls to floor level. This is supplemented by nozzles in the fabric that deliver the air at a higher velocity in specified directions. The weave of the fabric and the positions of the nozzles were selected to provide the required volumes of air to the spaces.
Each ventilation system comprises three branches serving an air handling unit, which also introduces fresh air to the system. In finishing and fulfilment areas the socks are circular in cross-section and coloured blue to complement the company’s corporate colours. In the print area they are D-shaped in cross-section in a grey fabric to ensure there is no distortion of colour when printed materials are being inspected.
In the print room, paper offcuts are drawn into an enclosed system to prevent dust and paper fragments contaminating the sensitive digital machinery. Here they are shredded and drawn through ductwork to containers outside the print room. The air used to drive the system is then filtered and returned to the print room through an additional textile ventilation system.