The green company

A clean coup was accomplished in Mulfingen, both in powder coating and cataphoresis coating: the switch from zinc to iron phosphating in surface treatment. This saves money, hazardous substances and nerves, as Supervisor Stefan Schmitt knows from experience. “The zinc sludge was nasty stuff indeed, chock full of heavy metals. We used to have to clean the entire zone, including the pipes, with acid every four weeks!” The advantages are particularly dramatic for cataphoresis coating, in which conversion coating using Oxsilan, an organic silicon-hydrogen compound, takes place. Unlike zinc phosphating, this works at room temperature, and thus does not require a heated bath, which keeps the 5,000 litres at a constant temperature of 50-70 degrees Celsius. This not only allows the heating energy to be saved, but also makes it unnecessary to use 30 hazardous substances. The wastewater volume could be reduced by two-thirds in the process. “The zinc sludge, which as hazardous waste required special disposal, could be omitted entirely,” Schmitt is pleased to report.

Staff at the St. Georgen are likewise busy finding new ways to lower consumption of process media. The screw compressors at Plant 1 had long been a source of irritation to Martin Hug. The Manager of Plant and Building Maintenance had to quite literally purchase the compressed air production at a high price. For technical reasons, the compressors need a lot of time and energy before they reach the necessary operating state for supplying adequate compressed air to the workstations. He then discovered a control system for the compressors, gathered information from colleagues in other companies and online and
had the system installed. This control system operates the compressors with run times that are as long as possible to reduce the number of cost-intensive start-up and idling phases. “The control system was fairly expensive, but it provides 10 percent electricity savings annually. In just under two years, the acquisition has already paid for itself,” Hug relates with satisfaction.

The new packing materials are shown by Tobias Arndt, Assistant to Logistics Manager, with a broad smile: the EPP plastic lasts three times longer than Styrofoam and is also recyclable. “The corrugated cardboard box used to hold six units, but now we fit twelve fans into the same space.” Because each element can be fit into the other, the packaging also saves a lot of space during return transport by lorry. This system provides nothing but advantages to the customer, ebm-papst and the environment. However, there is still vast room for improvement. “Of course, we approach customers and try to persuade them to use reusable packing materials,” says Arndt, confirming the efforts. Idealism alone is not enough. Mettler, too, knows this well: “The customer always wants to know, in concrete terms, what’s in it for them. At the end of the day, though, green intelligence always pays off. That is true today — and will be more so in future.”

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