Promoting Resource Efficiency in Small & Medium size ... - UNEP

Case Study: Anodisieranstalt A. Heuberger Ltd
Anodisieranstalt A. Heuberger is an anodising company. It has 18
employees in Graz, Austria. Annually, some 40.000 m 2 of aluminium
sheet metal, profile and small parts are treated in the plant. Anodising
is a galvanic process in which the surface of the aluminium is
converted to aluminium oxide, which protects the basic material
against corrosion and wear. By grinding and polishing, the surface can
be prepared in different decorative qualities prior to anodising. The
company is specialised in processing orders within a very short time.
Heuberger has participated in the ECOPROFIT programme, a Resource
Efficiency programme run by the City of Graz since 1996.
Plan: During the planning phase an inventory of materials, water
and energy was made by the consultant, the general manager and the
accountant. The preliminary assessment indicated a focus on water
was best because of the high consumption and cost as well as legal
implications of wastewater generation. Wastewater mainly results from
rinsing parts after pickling and anodising.
Do: Longer dripping times were introduced to minimize drag-outs.
This reduces the amount of process solutions, which are carried from
one process bath to the next on the surface of the parts, and therefore,
decreases the need for rinsing. The racks were changed for the same
purpose. Spray rinsing was introduced to increase the rinsing effect.
Check: A reduction of 30% of the production specific water
consumption could be demonstrated after implementation of the
measures. Therefore a continuation in 1997 was planned.
Act: With a modified focus (this time on hazardous waste and
industrial waste) the programme was repeated in 1997.
Hazardous waste has been reduced to a minimum: less than five litres
of used compressor oil annually and it is sent to a waste incineration
plant for the generation of district heat. Non hazardous waste is
separated into the fractions paper, metal, plastic, organic waste and
industrial waste. Paper, metal and plastic are sent for recycling, organic
waste to a compost facility.
Packaging materials are almost completely reused and the large
quantity customers have developed returnable packaging systems. The
annual quantity of industrial waste amounts to as little as 1,500 kg.
This represents a reduction of 50% in the amount of waste before the
participation in the Resource Efficiency programme. The remaining
industrial waste mainly resulted from cleaning the shopfloor.
Measures to reduce the consumption of natural gas included the
introduction of covers for the baths when they are not in use and
switching off the heating 30 minutes before production stopped at
night. This saved 5% of the natural gas consumption.
In 1997 the company decided to continue and to introduce an
environmental management system to systematize improvement.
The introduction of the management system started with an initial
review using the information collected during the Resource Efficiency
project. The information collected included:
• Comprehensive information on material and energy inputs and
outputs as well as options for improvement
• Information on legal compliance
• Information on the organisation of the company
This drew attention to the overlap between health and safety, cleaner
production and quality from the beginning of the job. In this company,
it resulted that the used materials’ effects on the environment were
equally important as their effects on the employees handling them.
Analysing the potential failures of the process resulted in a list of
environmental aspects as well as potential quality problems. The
legal compliance audit covered the relevant legislation regarding the
environment, business law, and health and safety.
From this review, a working programme was drafted that included:
• Development of a project to guarantee compliance with current
Austrian waste water legislation
• Evaluation and written documentation of the working conditions
at all the workplaces to comply with this legal requirement
• Increased training activities to improve the understanding of
the process and the handling of chemicals to prevent accidents
and to increase the accuracy of process conditions
• Definition of exact working procedures for anodising, analysis of
process baths, maintenance. From a quality perspective, lack in
process control meant that approximately 5% of the parts had to
be reworked, from an environmental point of view, this meant a
5% increase in use of chemicals, water, and energy
• Investment in an air-cooled plant to cool the anodizing bath. This
reduces the water consumption of the plant significantly and
provides for better control of anodizing temperature, especially
during summer, thus improving the quality of the final product
• Definition of responsibilities, corrective measures and an
auditing procedure
• Documentation of the management system
While evaluating the operators’ workplaces, the possibilities of
accidents were analysed and documented. Measures for accident
prevention were defined and implemented immediately.
The first step to implement this programme was the introduction
of indicators: the baths were analysed daily to optimise the use of
chemicals. The quantities of chemicals used were recorded daily as
were the quantities of water and methane. Changes in the specific
consumptions were discussed in the meetings of the Resource
Efficiency team.
The Resource Efficiency team was comprised of the manager, the
production foreman, the employees in charge of maintenance and
packaging, and the secretary. The production foreman was also in charge
of quality assurance and health and safety. So in fact the team covered
Case Study
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