Aquabox assemble over 1,000 filters per year on their site in Wirksworth, Derbyshire which is all undertaken by a team of volunteers.

With a new generation of filter arriving at the workshop, which had different seals and O rings to what the assemblers at Aquabox have used before they needed to make things easier to use.

Apexis Engineering are a turnkey engineering company based in Derby who’ve supported Aquabox with bespoke equipment previously. When Dominic Wish, trustee of Aquabox who is leading the introduction of the new generation of filter, reviewed the assembly requirements for this specific water filter he knew it was essential to have something to help get the seals into position onto the spline. He came up with a concept then reached out to Apexis Engineering to get his hand drawn concept reviewed and designed in CAD.

Dominic said “It is always a pleasure working with Apexis Engineering; they take my crazy ideas and scribbled sketches and come up with an easy-to-use solution that makes the tasks of our volunteers assembling filters so much easier.  What’s not to like with that?”

Apexis Engineering got to work on refining Dominic’s hand drawn concept idea into CAD; once we had a detailed design our machine shop partner, S.T. Engineering, were able to see if they could make it (they could!).

The end result was two tools; one for the seal that is at the higher ridge of the spindle and the other for the seal at the lower ridge of the spindle. The idea is to load the O ring and seals onto the shaft of the tool then simply slide them over the more bulbous head to easily slide them into the ridges where they sit.

The metal makes it easy to slide the O ring and to grab the seal to pull that into the position; making it easier for the assemblers to assemble.

Apexis Engineering completed the project in full free of charge to support the impressive work that Aquabox are doing as part of their CSR strategy.

Craig Harbron, Director of Apexis Engineering, says “The assembly line at Aquabox is very impressive; it’s clear what needs to be completed at each station and the volunteers are producing very high-quality products which are rigorously tested at the end of the assembly line. It’s always a pleasure to visit Aquabox and see the volunteers in action where I can usually catch up with a retired engineer for a quick chat on what I’ve designed and supplied to them which is always enjoyable and valuable for me personally.”

A Derbyshire collaboration between two small companies to support a charity that are within the manufacturing space creating unique and very valuable products for those in dire need of clean water around the world.