Meech International is celebrating the worldwide sale of over two hundred AHUv3's, the company's first in-house manufactured air handling unit and an integral component to three of its web cleaning technologies, the CyClean, VacClean and ShearClean. Featuring a robust design and requiring minimal maintenance, the AHUv3 provides the required airflows for the web cleaners, as well as housing the system filters.

"With web cleaning being one of Meech's areas of expertise, we decided it was time to focus not just on the technology of the cleaning heads of our systems, but also the technology behind them," explains Adam Battrick, Sales Director at Meech International. "As with many of our innovations, this was a customer driven initiative. Feedback indicated there was demand for a solution that guaranteed excellent filtration while also reducing the need for monitoring and operator intervention. As a result, we developed the AHUv3 family."

There are three models of the AHUv3 available: a 2-pump compact unit, a 3-pump unit and a 6-pump unit. The 2 pump model's compact design allows for easier integration in production environments where spacing is an issue, which is quite common in the narrow web industry. The 3 pump and 6 pump models are typically used for applications with web widths above 600mm.

While the AHUv3 shares similarities with previous air handling systems, Meech has now replaced the analogue features of the V1 and V2 units with a graphic display and digital touchscreen that allow remote activation, improved monitoring and personalised settings. This enables users to accurately pre-set the required level of pressure, depending on the application.

 "If you are running with the CyClean system, the AHUv3 monitors and controls the vacuum and positive pressure," explains Adam. "The required pressure can be adjusted to specification using the '+' and '-' buttons on the main screen. The 'Set' target pressure value that appears on the screen will alter as the buttons are pressed, and the unit will self-adjust to meet this requirement."

The air handling unit is also a highly intuitive system, reducing operator maintenance and intervention. When the filters start to fill with contamination over an extended period of time, the system's fans will automatically speed up to maintain the operator set performance level of the cleaning system. A signal alarm will alert when the filters eventually need to be cleaned or changed.

"Overall, the AHUv3 has proven to be extremely popular with our customers" concludes Adam. "To the best of my knowledge, none of our competitors offer true air handling units with their web cleaning systems, so we are confident to be providing true added value with this innovation."