The green company

Particularly energy-intensive environmental tests must be passed by a newly developed product. In the factory in St. Georgen in Germany’s Black Forest region, Robert Wasmuth and his colleagues test the service life and reliability of new devices. They do so using test cabinets that expose the devices to extreme temperature fluctuations, for example between -40 and +120 degrees Celsius. “In the past, electricity has been used for heating and cooling. Because the requirements have become more stringent, we found a new way to cool,” explains the Manager of Production Qualification and testing. Since 2007, Wasmuth has used the firefighting water reservoir, fed by a natural source, for a cooling circuit to cool the climatic test cabinets. In addition to the water reservoir, which has a 300 cubic meter capacity, a heat recovery system was installed as a second step to feed excess heat from the cooling circuit into the heating system — thus killing two birds with one stone: one benefit is that cooling the test cabinets requires only the electricity for the three circulation pumps. The second is that the heat given off by the cooling circuit supplies the heating system of the main administration building and provides part of the heat output during transition periods. Each year, the plant saves some thousand litres of heating oil. “I don’t like waste — at home or at work,” says Wasmuth of his motivation.

Similarly conscientious is Erwin Kammermayer. For eighteen months, the landshut location’s Purchasing Manager has continuously increased the number of environmentally certified suppliers. Of some 350 series suppliers, 20 percent are already certified. “That may not sound like a lot at first, but we are adding to this number all the time, and all of the top suppliers comply with the ISO 14001 standard.” Furthermore, the certification plays an important role in evaluating new suppliers. “We want to increase suppliers’ awareness of our green technology strategy. Even if it does not make financial sense for everybody yet, it has enormous potential for the future. Certification is also a good reference for suppliers.”

Markus Mettler also wants to raise awareness of green issues. The Technical Operations Manager gives presentations and serves on the board of Modell Hohenlohe e.V., a regional business association (see “The learning network”). “Energy efficiency
is my hobby,” he says with a grin. Though Mettler gives up some free time to take part in Modell Hohenlohe’s work groups and the “Energie Effizienz Tisch (EET),” an energy efficiency roundtable, his participation benefits the company. From the energy efficiency roundtables, he has taken away many ideas that were then implemented at ebm-papst, such as optimising heat distribution systems, compressor systems, lighting systems and production equipment. The projects that are now in place save approximately 500,000 euro in energy costs each year.

The engine of savings lies in production, as Mettler and his colleagues in the environmental team have discovered. The prime example: the new ultra-thin layer (UTL) powder coating facility, which has been in operation since January 2008. This is currently one of the most state-of-the-art methods on the market, as Production Manager Thomas Kozok emphasises. The two-storey enamelling line is in a separate hall and works with almost zero emissions: “We have a 100 percent powder recovery system in place.” The powder that does not adhere to the workpiece — which is some 60 percent — is completely extracted, recycled and fed back to the process. The heat given off by the enamelling oven in the facility’s upper storey is used to dry the parts after pre-treatment. “We want to lower the enamelling temperature significantly from its current level of 200 degrees Celsius and are working closely with powder manufacturers to do just that,” Kozok relates. Even today, the cooling effort has been decreased greatly, which also benefits the assembly employees at the plant. There, tropical temperatures once prevailed, but today the area no longer even needs air conditioning.

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