Felix Armstrong retired from the Royal Navy as a Lieutenant in 1956, and then became Office manager of a London Engineering Company manufacturing industrial specialties. This was the year of the great London 'Smog' in which several thousand died as a result of a Meteoroligical inversion coupled with dense smoke fumes - one of the infamous 'Pea Souper' fogs, in which it was - literally - not possible to see more than a couple of metres even at midday

After some years in Submarines, he naturally had some interest in clean air. Felix had previously read an article in 'Fortune' Magazine in which 100 American self-made millionaires were asked what business they would go into if they were starting all over again. 74 % of those asked said 'Air or Water Pollution Control', so in March 1957 he moved to Manchester where there was an opportunity to start a Manufacturer's Agency business, and 'where there's muck, there's money' as the saying goes.

The original Agency in Manchester was for large Industrial Vacuum Cleaners. Later in 1957, the first of the British Clean Air Acts was passed, and this in turn resulted in the formation of 'Fume and Moisture Extractors Limited'. Felix then ran this company very successfully for nearly ten years, eventually selling the business to the County Group of Companies in April 1967 when he migrated at his own expense to New Zealand and then later that year moved permanently to Australia.

My career began in 1986 with a small company involved in the design and manufacture of special purpose machinery and control systems. I continued to work in this area for a total of 6 years.
I moved then into an international arena working with Britax Rainsfords, a globally recognised leader in the development and production of automotive vision systems.
A time spent with Lockwood Whitco managing product development, engineering and US business development, gave me the opportunity to be involved in import/export whilst further exposing me to new technology and markets.
More recently I worked in the glass recycling industry, where I was fortunate to meet Felix and Controlled Environment.
Some years later when I found myself running a business involved with the development of machinery and other products Felix, who I had kept in contact with, asked me if I would be interested in becoming involved with Controlled Environment. This ultimately led to my purchase of the business, which has continued to prosper with the ongoing assistance of Felix.

With over 1500 installations within Australia, Asia and the Pacific over the past 30 years, Controlled Environment has built a reputation for customised cost effective solutions to emission problems.
Our comprehensive range of custom built bag houses, cyclones, multi-clones, and associated equipment enables us to engineer a solution for most applications. If we can’t, we can certainly point you in the direction of someone who can.
Add to this our range of Triboflow particulate monitors, and we can also accurately detect and provide warning systems for unacceptable emission levels from these installations.

Our knowledge in the milling area derived from our agencies for Pulva and Jet Pulveriser is of value to many of our customers.
In recent years we have become involved in the recycling industry, particularly in glass crushing and handling with Andela equipment, but also with separation equipment for other material streams where our knowledge of cyclones is paricularly useful. We are also equipped to satisfy the growing need for bag houses in this industry.
We are able to build special purpose equipment for specific applications, such as bag breakers, materials handling equipment, and control systems as required.