Guardian West
Urbana, Illinois
Intern: Anca Scaesteanu
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Guardian West located in Urbana, was constructed in 1998 and occupies 138,000
square feet with plans for expansion. Product lines include bumper
systems, receiver hitches, and running boards for the automotive industry. Capabilities
include blanking, robotic transfer systems, deep draw forming, robotic welding,
assembly, resistance welding, polishing, chrome plating, and painting.
The intern project focused on the plant’s lighting system, steam and
compressed air systems, and the electrostatic paint (E-coat) process.
Anticipated Results:
A total energy savings of $47,000 with a payback period of 2.4 years could
result from:
- Replacing current production floor lighting HID lamps with lower wattage
lamps.
- Converting fluorescent fixtures from T-12 lamps and magnetic ballasts
to T-8 lamps and electronic ballasts.
- Replace 65 incandescent lamps with CFLs.
It was recommended that the facility:
- Establish a leak-detection and repair program for both steam and compressed
air systems.
- Repair identified steam leaks that once fixed, could save the facility
$17,000.
- Repair compressed air leaks that could save the facility over $8,000
each year.
In the E-coat pretreatment process, it was noted that the facility might
consider:
- Utilizing a single-step pretreatment process known as Plaforization rather
than the current four-step process. The one-step process operates at
room temperature that in 4 minutes cleans, phosphates, and seals. There
is no generation of sludge, the chemical treatment bath never needs to
be cleaned, and there is no wastewater discharge. This has the potential
to save over 1.7 million gallons of water usage per year and associated
wastewater treatment costs with an overall savings of $93,000 annually.
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