Weaver’s Custom Woodworking Reduces Electricity Use with Ecogate

Since owner Mark Weaver opened the doors in 2008, Weaver’s Custom Woodworking LLC has been a family-owned company whose top priority is ensuring each and every customer is attended to specifically for their needs. Weaver’s builds custom kitchen and bathroom cabinets as well as custom built-ins for offices, libraries and more, all at reasonable and affordable prices for their customers straight out of their shop in New Holland, Pennsylvania.

Weaver's Custom Woodworking Facility in New Holland, PA
Weaver’s Custom Woodworking Facility in New Holland, PA

Weaver’s Custom Woodworking is a company that is on the rise and still growing. In 2017 they moved into a brand new shop that they built for themselves and bought a large dust collector at an auction to be able to meet their growing dust collection needs. However, the new dust collector was actually quite a bit larger than they needed for their shop and they would have spent too much money to keep such a large dust collector running at 100% capacity during working hours.

Weaver's Custom Woodworking's got an oversized dust collector for their facility.
Weaver’s Custom Woodworking’s got an oversized dust collector for their facility.

That’s when Mark Weaver, the owner, realized that Ecogate could help him. By controlling the speed of the dust collection system fan in real-time based on machine demand, Ecogate would dramatically reduce the electricity consumption of the system. “Ecogate made sense,” Mark says.

Ecogate works by monitoring what each workstation is doing at all times using machine activity sensors. These sensors provide input for the greenBOX control unit, which automatically opens electric blast gates to machines that are generating dust, and closes blast gates to machines that are not generating dust. The Ecogate Power Master variable frequency drive automatically slows down and speeds up the dust collection fan to perfectly match the total air volume requirements.

The Ecogate Power Master variable frequency drive (VFD) and greenBOX 12 controllers at Weaver's Custom Woodworking have reduced the factory's electricity consumption by approximately 70%.
The Ecogate Power Master variable frequency drive (VFD) and greenBOX 12 controllers at Weaver’s Custom Woodworking have reduced the factory’s electricity consumption by approximately 70%.

Mark, along with his electrician and the help of a local repairman, was able to install the new Ecogate system himself, saying the process was straightforward. With Ecogate’s on-demand system installed, Weaver’s dust collection system is fully-automated, highly-efficient and now delivers dust collection only when and where it is needed. The system uses only about 30% as much power as it did prior to the Ecogate installation.

The two features that Mark enjoys the most about his system is the electricity savings, as well as the reduction of noise in the factory. An added bonus is that nobody has to worry about turning the dust collector on and off anymore as the greenBOX controller does that.

Each woodworking machine at Weaver's Custom Woodworking is equipped with an automatic Ecogate blast gate.
Each woodworking machine at Weaver’s Custom Woodworking is equipped with an automatic Ecogate blast gate.

By Installing Ecogate, Weaver’s Custom Woodworking is saving approximately 70% of what their new dust collector would have been consuming at full capacity. The company also received an incentive from PPL’s Electric Utilities Business Rebate Program towards the cost of the project because of the substantial energy savings.

The project has been a great success, saving Weaver’s significant money on their electricity bill and allowing the company to focus on what matters most – delivering high quality products and making sure that each and every customer is happy with their custom-made furniture.

Learn more about Weaver’s Custom Woodworking

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Threading the Needle: Dust Collection for Shot Blasting Machines

We have a new guest post published at the Dust Safety Science website & blog – take a look!

In the article, we look at the unique challenges for dust collection that are posed by shot blasting machines.

The Ecogate greenBOX Master controller can automatically maintain precise drop air velocities for shot blasting applications.
The Ecogate greenBOX Master controller can automatically maintain precise drop air velocities for shot blasting applications.

Generally speaking, getting “good performance” from an industrial dust collection system is a matter of getting “enough” – enough air velocity at all drops such that waste material is reliably picked up, enough air velocity in the ducting system such that the waste material does not settle there, and so on.

In shot blasting applications, however, getting too much suction is also a problem, because this causes the abrasive material to be sucked away, which is a costly loss.

To solve this challenge, we developed a unique feature that ensures that the section is always in the right range, however that range is defined by the user for each specific application.

Read more about how we do that on the Dust Safety Science website

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