Prachitt machine crowned UK’s oldest working treatment plant

A 69-year-old Pratchitt Brothers Ltd pressure plant has been named as the oldest working timber treatment plant in the UK.

The plant, at Severn Valley Woodworks’ site in Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, was uncovered as part of a competition launched in TTJ by Treatment Services Ltd (TSL) “to find out which plant design has best stood the test of time”.

The Pratchitt machine has been operational since 1938 and is still in daily use, treating earth retaining wall and acoustic barrier components with Tanalith E and Tanatone from Arch Chemicals, while Severn Valley Woodworks has recently upgraded the machinery by installing Arch’s Auto-Treater PC control system.

A Pratchitt pressure plant installed in 1967 also came second in the competition, with Northern Ireland-based fencing firm William Kirkwood and Sons using the equipment on a daily basis to treat its products with Arch’s Tanalith E and installing TSL’s Spinnaker control system to upgrade the machinery.

A second competition from TSL has also uncovered the “most travelled treatment plant” in the UK, with a Cuprivac Micro double vacuum plant, which uses Osmose’s Protim Clearchoice to treat joinery products at Merseyside-based AS Newboulds Ltd, having covered 258 miles since it was supplied in 1981.