A TEXTILE firm is in the running for a top energy award.

Scapa Filtration (Europe) has been nominated for a Norweb Business Energy Award after introducing a new manufacturing process.

The firm, which produces industrial textile belting, had previously carried out part of its process at another site 10 miles from its Haslingden base.

And the machinery used to perform the task could only work cost-effectively if substantial amounts of belting were processed at the same time.

The firm decided to try to simplify the process and bring it in-house and asked engineers from Norweb's test centre at Chorley for help. An infra-red unit was installed at the mill for trials and the tests were successful.

"Within just one month we had recouped the cost of the equipment," said Scapa Filtration's Peter Hayhurst.

"We've brought the process in house which is good for quality control, reduced costs by two thirds, improved turn around time and increased flexibility."

The winners of the awards will be announced in October.

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