Local wastewater technology production breaks supply and service bottlenecks while improving sustainability for vital food, beverage and municipal groups.
CST Wastewater Solutions Managing Director Mr Michael Bambridge says the move to fully manufacture rotary drum screen and screw screen/compactors in Australia is enhancing quality, environmental outcomes and certainty of supply to its customers. He said the supply chaos created by COVID and international tensions just made the decision to produce locally even easier because there are so many reasons in favour of it.
“It means we can build into our product the quality of Australian engineering and metalworking, which is respected worldwide. It means we can quickly build in features that adapt product to local conditions, which can vary strongly across Australasia and SE Asia.
“Local production means we can place supply and service closer to the customers on whom entire populations depend for reliable service and environmental outcomes, including food and beverage production and municipal services. It builds jobs, skills and capabilities in this region,” said Bambridge. The company has made its mark in Australasia and SE Asia for more than 25 years with dozens of highly robust and cost-efficient screening and compacting installations.
These include gut washers used by Thomas Foods International, anti-clogging and environmental/OHS installations in one of Australia’s largest tanneries, rotary drum screens used by food processing leader Beak and Johnston, and multiple rendering and processing plants.
Quality leadership
The switch to local production has also enabled CST Wastewater Solutions to extend its value and low-maintenance durability offering, as opposed to simply the cheapest construction.
Now CST has extended its advantage to offer full stainless-steel products with these same world-respected standards of Australasian metals engineering, replacing carbon steel components and further improving corrosion resistance in harsh municipal and industry environments, such as meat, livestock and agricultural processing.
“It is important to remember that a lot of councils and food and beverage companies just don’t have the engineering staff on the payroll to provide the standards of maintenance that a manufacturer can. So if disruptions such as floods and high flows cause breakdowns and leaks into the environment, they can be looking at environmental spills and groundwater damage that can incur statutory, reputational and financial damage. Saving small sums on cheaper and more damage-prone technology, with lesser service backup, can suddenly look like a terribly bad decision.”
Such testing environments – in which the screens, compactors, and wedge wire and perforated drums are typically used – extend from the toughest environments, including meat, dairy, poultry, fishery, and livestock plants, but also equally testing and proving environments in municipal sewerage, waste management and water supply networks on which entire communities and enterprises depend.
In many industrial plants, these screens allow the important product recovery of fat and proteinaceous material, which is all worth money to companies seeking to maximise their use of resources,” says Bambridge.
The screen and compactor technology – which is a first line of defence in preventing blockages, overflows and environmental – is integral not only to processing operations, but also to the sustainability of livestock industries sharing valuable water resources with nearby communities, and wishing to maintain their social license to operate
“Integral to the new, locally manufactured rotary drum screens and auger extractors is industry-best screening (above), which provides 50% finer apertures for greater waste solids extraction and recovery,” says Bambridge.
“We have been moving progressively to local manufacture for the past two years now, to maintain quality leadership and guarantee reliable supply as COVID has wrought havoc with imports.”
“Shortages and erratic supplies have had a knock-on effect right through the wastewater engineering sector, so we took the decision early to give our customers and edge in quality and certainty.”
“Not only does local manufacture deliver a more robust and low-maintenance product – and better whole-of-lifecycle value – but it places the customer next to the source of supply for spare parts, future extensions and retrofits to boost performance long-term.”
This is an especially crucial factor with staff and skills shortages, and as more and more organisations don’t have the engineering services on-site to totally maintain and to repair equipment without delay if it needs rapid attention.
Everyone benefits
Bambridge says a very important additional advantage of the move away from cheap imports to local manufacture of a superior product, is the boost local spending gives to this country’s jobs and skills base.
“Everyone benefits – the customer gets a better product and greater certainty of supply, and local suppliers – including, tooling, cutting and component makers – get the benefit of the local spend, plus more local families get the advantage of more and better jobs.”
“Local spending by Australian business makes sense on so many levels. Where the government is concerned, particularly, far greater preferences should be given to local manufacture over cheap imports that don’t pay Australian taxes or benefit the local economy.”