The Dewlay cheese-making dairy has been producing high quality cheeses in the village of Garstang for over 60 years. The firm takes particular pride in its Lancashire Cheese and its produce has received numerous honours at the annual International Cheese and Dairy Awards.

To continue the firm’s growth and expansion, they chose to more than double their number of mechanical cheese presses. To maintain temperatures within the presses, EcoDuct installed the Kingspan KoolDuct System within the roof of the facility.

Kingspan KoolDuct boards feature a premium insulation core faced with aluminium foil which can be easily assembled into lightweight ductwork sections up to 2.95 metres in length.

This simple fabrication approach was particularly beneficial on the project due to the restrictions of the site, as the managing director of EcoDuct explained: “We installed all of the Kingspan KoolDuct System sections in the roof space above the factory. To limit the disruption to Dewlay, a barrier was erected above the food production areas allowing them to continue functioning as normal.

“The Kingspan KoolDuct sections were then fed through a hole in the side of the building. Due to the size of some of the sections required, it was assembled in separate pieces. Our installers were then able to fit the full run within the roof space itself. This wouldn’t have been possible to achieve with standard galvanised ductwork.”

The duct construction process and coupling options supported by the Kingspan KoolDuct System form secure junctions and allow air leakage rates to be reduced to a fraction of those found with typical sheet metal ductwork.

The combination of excellent thermal performance and airtightness was particularly important on this project, as the circulated air needed to be maintained at cool temperatures to protect the dairy produce within the presses. By limiting heat and air-leakage through the ductwork, cooling and fan sizes were reduced, cutting overall energy demand. In addition to reducing long-term running costs, this also fits within the firm’s commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency exemplified by the 2mW wind turbine which provides power to the site.

The Kingspan KoolDuct System is UL Listed as a Class 1 Air Duct, to Standard for Safety UL 181, when fabricated to a specification clearly defined by UL. In addition, the KoolDuct board has also been assessed under the demanding responsible sourcing standard BES 6001 for which Kingspan Insulation has been awarded a certificate of ‘Excellent’ level. A BIM object for the product can be freely downloaded from the bimstore.