EDITORIAL Pursuing Environmental Peace W


hat should be our industry’s approach to environmental issues? When it comes to government


regulations, we are, for the most part, a reactive industry. The U.S. (or state


level) Environmental Protection Agency proposes a rule. Metalcasters debate it from the standpoint that the rule isn’t economically feasible or it overreaches its intent and puts our industry at a competitive dis- advantage. Ultimately, a compromise of some form is met, and a rule is published for all to follow. Our industry then spends the time up until the rule’s start date ensuring our facilities are in compliance. For some facilities, compliance is easy. For others, 100% compliance may mean closing. What about non-regulatory environmental issues?


Is your plant clean and well lit? Could the noise level be reduced? Is it well organized? Regardless of whether your facil- ity is one or 100 years old, has its environment been optimized for productivity? These questions can be hard to answer about ourselves and sometimes require outside assistance to assess. Most metalcasting markets


Hoods also were installed above the molds from pouring through shakeout.


• All of the plants were built without pits. If a pit were required, manufacturing was raised above ground level to allow easy access for cleaning and maintenance.


• Instead of horns blasting an alert when molten metal was being transferred, children’s songs like “Pop Goes the Weasel” were played. When I asked one of the metalcast-


across the globe are in the same position as we are. They face strong mandates from their government, as well as increased policing (rightly and wrongly) from their communities. And like us, most feel a similar level of frustration and helplessness when trying to work through environmental issues. The question is whether there is a way to eliminate the negativity and turn it positive? From my experience, one metalcasting nation that


An iron and aluminum facility that exclusively utilizes shell cores had fully enclosed each of its 40 core machines to ensure zero emissions or odor.


ing plant owners about the expense of these types of environmental initiatives, his response (via a translator) was, “The cost is high, but the cost of not doing it is higher. We believe our workers produce better in the best environment.” It also appears that despite strong environmen- tal legislation throughout the country, the metalcasters be- lieve the relationship between government and manufacturing is more understanding of each others’ positions. Several of the metalcasting


facility owners said that ap- proximately 10% of the cost of recent plant expansions/new plant development was targeted toward environmental control. While this figure is on par with several recent North American


appears to have a different approach to environmen- tal initiatives is Japan. In a recent tour through some Japanese metalcasting facilities, I was surprised at the environmental investment I saw. • In one large-flask nobake facility, employees swept up spilled sand around the flask after finishing a mold. In the same facility, the molds were moved to an enclosed room for pouring, cool down and shakeout to ensure all emissions were captured.


• An iron and aluminum facility that exclusively utilizes shell cores had fully enclosed each of its 40 core machines to ensure zero emissions or odor entered the rest of the facility.


• One high-production iron facility had installed a hood to draw emissions off furnaces during melt- ing and ladles during melt transfer and pouring.


MODERN CASTING / August 2010


expansions we have covered in MODERN CASTING, the Japanese metalcasters appeared proud of these environmental investments as much as the new molding lines and furnaces they installed. I didn’t sense any helplessness or frustration. For North American metalcasting, a light at the


end of the tunnel may one day appear when search- ing for environmental peace. It will require growth from our government, our communities and us, but it does appear to be possible.


Alfred T. Spada, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief


If you have any comments about this editorial or any other item that appears in MODERN CASTING, email me at aspada@afsinc.org.


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