C-Mech Services Ltd

Alan Collin MD of CPA & Paul Churcher MD of C-Mech

C-Mech Services Ltd are Enershield Air Barrier Distributors for the South East of England. Enershield is well established in Canada and across North America and CPA Total Air Solutions manufacture and distribute Enershield products from their facility in Lanarkshire, Scotland for the European market.

So what is an Air Barrier? The Enershield Air Barrier creates a “virtual door” by re-circulating ambient air and forcing it across an opening to create up to a 90% seal. The seal separates the atmospheres on either side and stops the transfer of temperature, humidity, dust, odours and insects. With just a draught of air creating the barrier, vehicles and pedestrians can pass without obstruction.

Enershield Air Barrier - Industrial

Enershield Air Barrier - Loading Bays

The Benefits:

• Save energy: Escalating energy costs mean rising fuel bills. Where doors are opening and closing frequently or always open due to a high volume of traffic your heating or chilling costs will be a major and increasing expense.
• With reduced energy consumption typical installation’s provide a conservative Return On Investment of less than 2 years and in some cases less than 1 year.
• 

  Enershield Air Barrier - Large Industrial Door Opening

  Reduced demand on your heating or chilling systems reduces servicing costs and increases their life expectancy.

• Atmospheric separation. This means airborne problems like dust, insects, smoke, traffic fumes and odours are all prevented from passing through Enershield.
• Stabilised temperature and control of contaminants gives improved production quality

Air Barrier v Air Curtain. Air Barriers should not be confused with a heated warm air curtain, whose primary design objective is to provide warmth at an open doorway.  Without a proper seal over an open door, your expensively heated or air conditioned air, along with the warm air blast from a typical heated air curtain is immediately conveyed to the outside. Traditionally a typical 5Kw air curtain will operate 8 hours per day, 5 days per week will consume in excess of £1,000 of electricity per annum.  Under the same conditions an Enershield Air Barrier will consume £60 of electricity per annum.

Before and after Video for an Air Barrier on a freezer door opening

How to prevent flying insect and dust ingress through large door openings

Flying Insects can be a major problem for food related businesses.  Existing legislation can mean a food processing company being penalised if they do not take steps to protect against flying insect ingress.  Electric Fly Killers are a common way to deal with this issue but obviously the flying insects are then already in the building.  Some of the various methods to prevent flying insects from actually getting into the building include Insect Screens for windows and personnel doors and PVC Strip Curtains.

Especially on larger openings suitable for Fork Lift Trucks or Vehicles there can be problems with PVC Strip Curtains due to poor visibility.  Over time they can become scuffed and dirty which prevents clear vision through the curtain causing a health and safety issue especially where Fork Lift Trucks are concerned.  High Speed Doors can be used and are a good option although for door openings with high traffic volumes can spend a lot of time in the open position.   A solution for this problem is to use an Enershield Air Barrier supplied and installed by C-Mech Services Ltd.

This method is not designed to replace a door but to automatically start working when the door is opened.  Working in conjunction with a standard Roller Shutter, Sectional Door or a High Speed Door an Air Barrier provides continues protection against dust and flying insects entering the building even whilst personnel, fork lift trucks or vehicles are passing through the opening.

A major benefit of Air Barriers is to reduce energy costs by minimising temperature loss across a door opening.  They can also minimise the transfer of humid ambient air into large freezers to reduce ice and frost build up.

If you require further information or would like to discuss the benefits of Enershield Air Barriers in more detail please call us on 01795 842370 or email info@c-mech.co.uk.  If you wish to view more detailed information regarding Enershield Air Barriers please follow this link to the Enershield website  www.enershield.ca