Nestro Lufttechnik

NESTRO LUFTTECHNIK

DEDUSTING THE WORLD

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NESTRO LUFTTECHNIK

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PROFILE

NESTRO Lufttechnik GmbH has specialised in extraction and filter systems for the past 45 years. Till Uhle, Director Marketing and Sales, shared details of the company’s innovative range with Phil Nicholls.

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one of the first suppliers in the field of filter technology for the wood industry, NESTRO Lufttechnik GmbH was an early developer of clean air systems. NESTRO technology features the fan located downstream of the filter and thus only charged with clean gas. This arrangement increases fan energy efficiency by up to 30%.

The story of NESTRO began in 1977, founded by Paulus Nettelnstroth, with the first production facility opened in 1978 at Kirch-Brombach in Hesse, central Germany.

In 1980, NESTRO relocated to Röllbach in Bavaria, where it developed reverse air filter technology with additional flushing air fans, enabling highly efficient, energy-saving cleaning of filter bags. During the 1990s, NESTRO was a pioneer in the Eastern European markets, building a strong sales network in a relatively short period.

In 1993, the company finally inaugurated its production and office building

on a 44,000 sqm site at its current headquarters in Schkölen, Thuringia.

NESTRO today has three production sites, located in Germany, Poland, and Hungary with 300 employees in total. Each site focuses on a strategically defined sub-set of NESTRO’s range, typically with an output tailored to the respective national market.

The NESTRO Group posted impressive sales of over €40 million last year, with customers across five continents and in many different industries. Till Uhle, Director Marketing & Sales, outlined the broad appeal of NESTRO products: “Our solutions are needed wherever dust, chips, cuttings, punching waste, smoke or paint mist are produced during material treatment or processing, and wherever material can be separated using air flow, such as in the waste disposal and recycling industry.”

Mr Uhle was keen to maintain customer confidentiality with regards to current projects but remained clear about the reasons behind the steady growth.

“We serve small and large customers alike,” he said. “NESTRO has small sales orders and large project businesses.

This broad positioning in many sectors and in many international markets makes us significantly less dependent on market fluctuations than some of the other market players.

“We are currently experiencing a crossindustry boom in orders, despite significantly higher prices, arising from a necessary surcharge due to the situation in the supply market. Even price-adjusted, the first quarter of 2022 showed the highest order intake in the company’s history.”

The USP of NESTRO products is clear to Mr Uhle: “Setting up, standing and maintenance times, energy efficiency or recycling rates/qualities are all increasingly becoming matters for the focus of managerial attention. NESTRO provides personal support for customers to face-up to these new challenges in providing optimum working conditions.

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NESTRO LUFTTECHNIK

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PROFILE

“Our systems extract material that is hazardous to health or process-impairing in an energy-efficient manner and thus help clients implement perfect quality air with reduced downtimes. NESTRO systems also convey, shred, separate, store or compact the residual material according to the requests of our customers.”

Deduster upgrades Innovation continues to drive NESTRO’s performance. Back in 2014, NESTRO launched the first deduster with an air volume of over 7,000 cbm/h approved for indoor installation. Now in 2022, development of this technology has led to a range of dedusters equipped with IE5 synchronous reluctance motors and matching frequency converters. IE5 packages can save operators up to 22% of the energy costs compared to those using IE3 motors.

Mr Uhle shared the features of the next generation dedusters: “The development of the mobile NESTRO deduster series type NE J for indoor installation in the established performance classes is based on the company’s decades of experience in woodworking, in device technology and in the construction of high-efficiency fans.

“The use of clean air dedusters for material extraction is perfect for small and medium-sized companies from many different industries, and always worthwhile for cost reasons.”

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NE J dedusters offer multiple savings for customers. Short pipeline routes reduce investment costs and ensure overall low line resistances. The mobile plug-and-play nature of the NE J range that only requires power, a compressedair connection and junction of the pipeline further reduces installation costs. The frequency controlled IE5 reluctance motor achieves an operating efficiency above 90% and thereby reduces running costs.

The filter material guarantees a residual dust content of < 0.1 mg/m³ with the return air; cleaner than outdoor air. As the deduster circulates air without heat loss, customers can significantly reduce heating costs. The addition of an intelligent, certified automatic fire extinguishing system without the use of water or dry chemicals cuts the NE J’s maintenance costs.

Cutting edge investments Development at NESTRO, confirmed Mr Uhle, is an ongoing process.

“NESTRO is constantly investing in buildings and machines at all three locations,” he explained. “Last year, for example, a new cutting / shearing / bending system from Prima Power was put into operation in Germany connected to the automatic high rack stocking area. This has given us clear advantages in terms of productivity, economy, precision, and flexibility.

“An automatic loading unit for the supply of raw sheet metal as well as

a system-integrated load/batch robot between the cutting/shearing segment and the bending segment guarantee automatic, multi-shift operations if required.

Now for the first-time metal sheets with a length of up to 4 m can now be tooled.”

Additionally, pre-cut parts with a length of up to 3m can be bent in a highly adaptive manner. The bending segment can carry out positive as well as negative bends, even with complicated geometry, without turning the sheet while the tools are automatically adapted to part and material. With much less manual work, it is now possible to produce very demanding parts – using a manufacturing specific design – which leads to significant cost savings in the downstream working process.”

Competition in the field is strong, but Mr Uhle is confident of NESTRO’s position.

“Our employees, our distributors and our specialist retail partners are all excellently established on the market and have a lot of experience and extensive knowhow in air technology. We not only offer a product, but always a systemic solution, possibly with extensive government funding opportunities, to completely satisfy each customer.”

The route to a satisfied client begins with NESTRO’s relationships with suppliers.

“In these difficult times,” Mr Uhle explained, “our long-standing supplier relationships are crucial to being able to survive

on the market. Quality has always been an important factor for us here.

“Now our partners are helping us, especially in the current critical areas of delivery capability and reliability. I think each of your readers knows how challenging these two issues are today, which had otherwise always been taken for granted. These solid partnerships with our suppliers are the key factor for every project in 2022.

Conversely, our suppliers can also rely on us as customers.”

Sustainable growth Moving into 2022, Mr Uhle identified two main trends: energy efficiency and intelligent control technology.

He explained: “In several countries there are subsidy programs for replacing old, more energy-intensive system technology with new ones. For this, energy efficiency criteria must be met. We believe that these requirements will become even more stringent due to climate change.”

In 2020, NESTRO received the REC Sustainability Award. “Our group of companies has positioned itself completely sustainably,” Mr Uhle said. “NESTRO generates its own electricity at two locations

“The use of clean air dedusters for material extraction is perfect for small and medium-sized companies from many different industries, and always worthwhile for cost reasons” using polycrystalline photovoltaic modules with a total output of 530 kWp. We also generate heat at all three locations.

“At NESTRO, we believe that filter and extraction technology is a sustainably growing business, as the requirements for clean air in production facilities are becoming more demanding, and not just because of occupational health and safety laws.”

Yet, challenges remain for NESTRO. Supply bottlenecks – especially of electrotechnical vendor parts – have impacted production and delivery times. The rural locations of NESTRO plants exacerbate the

growing challenge of employing skilled workers, as young people are drawn to metropolitan areas.

Despite these challenges, Mr Uhle maintained a positive mindset: “We want to continue to grow internationally and defend our consulting leadership in the market. To this end, NESTRO will continue to expand production in terms of space and technology at all our locations in the upcoming years. We are continuously revising our product portfolio to be able to offer customers simple, comprehensive, and energy-efficient system solutions.”

NESTRO’s team spirit carrying it into the future is evident to Mr Uhle: “It is of course great to accompany NESTRO with its motivated team on a sustainable growth course and to permanently establish it on the market as a high-quality supplier. In addition, it is absolutely satisfying to work for a company whose products ensure a cleaner and therefore more liveable environment.”

He concluded: “The flat hierarchies in our family business facilitate exchange and enable quick decisions.

It is said that the fast eat up the slow: we’ll keep our appetites.” n

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