Terinex Flexibles has opened its new sustainable EPC A+ rated factory building. Believed to be the UK’s first net zero CO2 rated building to house a flexographic printing facility, it is located on a new 3-acre site on Dove Valley Park, near Derby.
The 46,000 sq ft building is big enough to accommodate the company’s future growth and innovation plans in the most sustainable way possible.
The factory and office building was opened by Frank McArdle, retired chief executive of South Derbyshire District Council. McArdle was instrumental in supporting OGM Holdings Group with the new build project at Dove Valley Park, having championed growth in the region for many years.
Other local representatives were also in attendance at the opening such as Dr Justin Ives, South Derbyshire District Council’s chief executive. Also at the opening event, were those involved in the design and build of the factory and Terinex Flexibles’ suppliers.
Parent company, OGM Holdings Group, has invested over £10m in the new facility which is more than double the size of the original Terinex Flexibles factory that was located in Ripley.
As part of OGM’s focus on creating more sustainable manufacturing sites, the Terinex Flexibles facility – designed by IMA Architects and developed by Clowes Developments UK LTD – has been built and equipped using the latest materials, machinery, technology and processes.
This has resulted in low overall energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The factory generates its own energy from renewable sources and will be able to recover and reuse energy for many years to come.
To recover energy from the byproducts of the printing process for reuse, an innovative heat recovery system has been installed, linked to an advanced regenerative thermal oxidiser (RTO). Depending on the amount of printing that is done at any one time, it is expected that between 45 – 230 kW of energy will be generated.
This energy is captured and stored as hot water in two 10,000l buffer vessels and used for heating large volumes of air that are required for drying the ink in the printing process, as well as being reused for heating rather than drawing gas from the mains.
The roof has been fitted with a solar PV panel array of 215 kWp for generating power to operate the factory, including power for the 54kW immersion heaters in the buffer vessels.
All the offices are serviced with Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR), providing a minimum of 75% energy efficient ventilation to sealed rooms. Also, the lighting power consumption is well below industry benchmarks, a night set-back system has been included to minimise overnight heating consumption and electric charging points are in situ for staff and visitor cars.
The careful use of technology and materials for the fabric of the building, windows and doors has led to a building air permeability of no greater than 5.0 m3/(h.m2) at 50 Pa. This is far below the minimum standard set by The Building Regulations Approved Document Part L2A of 10.0 m3/(h.m2) at 50 Pa.
Paul Wightman, Group Managing Director of the OGM Holdings Group, says: “We are proud to have created a state-of-the-art facility in terms of energy efficiency. As well as the fabric and services of the building, we are investing in efficient plant equipment and other energy saving devices. For example, variable speed inverter drives have been added on all pumps and fan motors to further reduce consumption.
“Being an environmentally conscious business is no longer enough. We believe achieving demonstrable 30% reductions in the carbon footprint of our Group factories by 2025 is now mandatory. We are also doing everything we can to offer our customers more sustainable flexible film options.
“These include compostable, recyclable and PCR (post-consumer 30% to 90% recycled content) materials, compostable inks, recyclable papers and reusable pallets. In terms of emissions management, we take this very seriously and as a result of investment in the latest technology for cleaning our exhaust gases, our solvent mass emissions to atmosphere will be below 20mg/Nm3, which is the most stringent target for VOCs emissions.”
