Construction Magazine Spring 2004 - Savings rocket with Apollo

Manufacturing companies dream of purchasing new equipment which is installed without problems, works efficiently and saves money to boot.  For Vista Panels this dream became reality when it purchased a revolutionary adhesive application system.

Vista is one of the leading manufacturers of UPVc door panels in the UK.  Recently purchased from the BHD Group, it is now a privately owned company and has just been floated on the AIM share index.  It has an ambitious development plan which aims to increase the business by £1M year on year for the next five years.

Paul Bird recently joined Vista as Operations Director after a career spanning nearly 24 years in the lamination industry and after a thorough review of all the processes in place decided that there were efficiencies to be made.

'I talked to all Vista's existing suppliers and also approached Apollo Adhesives, a company known for innovative solutions with which I had a working relationship from my previous post,' he explained.

'I explained that I needed a supplier with a good track record in every facet of the business.  I expected first class service back up if there was a problem and I needed to work with people who understood what I wanted.  It didn?t seem much to ask!!

'I was also keen that the company supplying us with adhesives would sign a supply agreement which included the machinery as well.  However, Apollo suggested an alternative solution that they felt would work better for us.

'Apollo had been working with Duemas Technology in Swansea to develop a revolutionary diamond beader with an easy-to-clean, quick-change head, which will eliminate the problems commonly associated with conventional application systems where the adhesive is sprayed across the panels with an atomiser, leading to an incredible amount of wasted product ? and a rather daunting clean up job!'

The machine had just been launched, and following a trip to Swansea with Alan Poole of Apollo he recognised the machine's tremendous potential to save time, money and mess.

The state of the art system applies adhesive to panels using a traversing pattern - the diamond beader.  It provides excellent coverage with very little wastage and offers push-button width adjustment.  Then, when the process is complete, the head automatically parks itself in a bath sealing the bead head from the atmosphere, if any maintenance is required the bead head can be quickly released and due to the material from which it is manufactured, the adhesive just falls out!

The head is made out of a solid PTFE (Teflon) material, which means that it is, to use kitchen vocabulary, non-stick.  Three interchangeable heads are supplied with the machine, so there is no need to waste time and maintenance, just change the head.

The purchase was made, the machine installed and Apollo became the contracted supplier to Vista Panels.