Tony Willis, President of the United Kingdom Forest Products Association (UKFPA), officially opened Melcourt’s brand new bark processing plant, at Bishops Castle, on 25 February 2004.

Unprocessed bark for the plant is drawn from sawmills and chipboard plants located within Wales and the Welsh Borders catchment area.

About 1000 tonnes of raw bark are processed at the plant each week.

As required, the raw bark is loaded onto the infeed table, which passes it onto a conveyor, and over a pre-screening table. This unique piece of equipment removes any oversized wood, branches and other contaminants within the bark. The pre-screened material is then conveyor fed into a 50-metre long variable speed rotary trommel screen. This screen is fitted with six different mesh sizes.

As the bark is rotated and flows through the screen it is mechanically graded by particle size. The fine grade material falls out into the first bay with subsequently larger particle sizes falling into the next four bays.

All the ‘over size’ material is chopped into smaller pieces and recycled back through the plant.

Each storage bay holds about 250 cubic metres of graded product. As each bay becomes full it is emptied by the loading shovel operator and put into the appropriate storage bay in the yard.

In all, the production site manufactures eight different products.

The plant has a capacity to produce up to 400,000 m³ per annum and cost in the region of £800,000. It is the largest and most technically advanced equipment of its kind in the UK.

The equipment was supplied by Roderick and Enners and consists of:

• Feed deck
• Pre-screen sorting table
• Variable speed trommel screen
• Oversize chopping plant

One man operates the whole production facility.

Finished products, from Bishops Castle, are supplied in bulk loose loads to landscape contractors, local authorities, play ground operators and installers, professional growers and compost manufacturers, throughout the UK.

Andy Chalmers, Melcourt’s Sales & Marketing Director says, ‘This new plant allows us not only to substantially increase production capacity, but it also improves the quality and range of our products’.

The opening ceremony was witnessed by:

• Melcourt staff and shareholders
• Melcourt distributors – Green-Tech Ltd, Woodland Horticultural Products and Avoncrop Ltd