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J&M Plating Inc.
Rockford, IL
Arun Madasu
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb
J&M Plating was founded in Rockford in 1986 and is a metal finishing
job shop and provides a wide range of services to the fasteners industry
that includes electroplating, heat-treating and sorting. The intern worked
on several projects but the primary focus was to develop an EMS (Environmental
Management System) on its zinc line.
Result:
- The intern started an EMS pilot project on the facility’s zinc
line. Weekly meetings were held with a team of key employees. For the
zinc line, the group identified environmental aspects (activities, products,
or services that interact with the environment) and environmental impacts
(adverse or beneficial environmental changes resulting from activities,
products, or services).
By ranking the aspects and impacts, it was determined that the team
would concentrate on wastewater, air emissions, hazardous and solid
wastes, raw materials, and water and energy.
The EMS will be expanded to include other processes at the facility.
- On the two heat-treat lines, carbon is deposited from the furnace
on the conveyor belt. A vacuum system has been proposed to vacuum carbon
from the conveyor belt whereby it could be recycled. The system would
cost $6,000 for both lines and would provide a cleaner work area, an
increase in air quality, and less detriment to electrical motors in
the immediate work area.
- Equipment to recycle waste quench oil would cost between $50,000 and
$80,000. If 70 % of the generated waste quench oil can be recycled,
nearly $44,000 can be saved every year.
- Presently the polypropylene plating barrels are cut and sent to landfill
at the end of their useful life. Gar Plastic Re-cyclers in Madison,
Wisconsin, was contacted to see if they could recycle the barrels. The
cost savings would be $2,000 per year while eliminating 3500 lbs. of
waste sent to landfill.
- On all four plating lines, barrel drive motors run even when there
is no barrel in the tank. The intern requested a quote to modifying
the switching mechanism to start the barrel drive only when the tank
is loaded. This can save a considerable amount of energy.
- Compressed air lines were mapped throughout the facility. An ultrasonic
leak detector was utilized on the lines to detect and tag leaks. It
was determined that by repairing all leaks would save the facility $16,000
per year.
- Two identical heat treat furnaces operate around 1700 0F. The intern
investigated a new technology developed by Atmosphere Recovery Inc.
to capture vented gases and recycle them back to the furnace. A 90%
reduction in atmospheric gas emissions could result in a savings of
over $200,000 with a payback of 6 months.
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