January 2023 finally saw the installation and commissioning of our new degreasing plant.
Our previous plant was over 25 years old, used aggressive/toxic chemicals and created a vapour of Methylene Chloride. It was heated for 12 hours a day by 9kw heaters which maintained chemical boiling point the whole time it was on. The condensing process was created by a chilled, sealed water system run by 7.5kw chillers. To add the un-environmentally friendly process, 500 litres of hazardous chemical was delivered by road each month.
So, now the good news!
The pretreatment process in our new plant is water based, uses zero Volatile Organic Compounds which are eco-friendly. And, whilst the energy consumption is like the previous degreaser, this one only draws power during its running cycle of approx. 5 -12 minutes. As the capacity is 4 times the old load size, so it supports an even greater environmental and financial savings. The metal is left coated with long wearing anticorrosion protection which also affords enhanced adhesion for powder coating. Our carbon footprint is dramatically reduced too as we only use around 50 litres of additive per month, which is a tenth of previous volume and nontoxic too!
