Derby College Apprentice & Welder Training Centre Equipped with new HPD Fume Extraction

What do you do with a derelict old engine shed that has Grade II listed status and had seen better days? Derby College turned it into an Award winning 18,000m² flagship learning and teaching centre as part of a £48m regeneration scheme.

Opened in September 2009, the Roundhouse now offers students a wide range of courses including, art and design, building services, gas electric and plumbing as well as engineering and welding.

For the engineering and welding centre, Flextraction through their distributor, Leengate Industrial Welding Supplies Ltd from Nottingham, who were already suppliers of welding and fume extraction equipment to Derby College, were asked, after successfully tendering, to supply the fume extraction equipment for the new welding bays in the apprentice and welder training area.

Leengate supplied a Thermadyne Synergic Pulsed MIG 320A welding machine and a 200A AC/DC TIG welding machine for each of the 12 welding bays, but before welding could commence fume extraction equipment was required and it was here that Flextraction became involved. Flextraction specifically designed and installed their latest HPD (Hood Positioning Device) system that was able to cater for the constricted space in the lower ground floor of the new Kirtley link building housing the welding shop and which also connects the old engine Roundhouse and the carriage repair shops.

Each welding bay has a self supporting 2m long, highly flexible articulated arm attached to a wall mounting bracket with each arm having an epoxy black 100mm diameter flared hood. To discharge the fumes away from each bay, spiral galvanised sheet steel ducting was sized and proportioned to give a good conveying velocity through out it entire length. The whole system was designed to go hand in hand with the structural set up of the building. Access doors were also installed for inspection and servicing requirements.

A single 3-phase centrifugal, single inlet, medium pressure fan fitted with an impeller with backward facing blades supplies the conveying velocity operating at 2,895 revs/min.

Also included in the installation was a manual plasma cutting machine with a TEKA 600mm x 635mm air suction table to extract smoke and fumes using 160mm ducting under the bench at 1,500 m³/hr and a Grinding bench for weld preparation and finishing work was also supplied.

The complete fume extraction system was installed by Flextraction engineers.

James Thorneycroft, Engineering Lecturer at Derby College said: “Our new Roundhouse facilities allow us to offer students excellent welder and welding theory learning opportunities. The HPD fume extraction system that we have installed provides our students with an excellent working environment. The fact, that the equipment needs very little servicing, means that we can carry out apprentice and welder training without interruption."