In the manufacturing of electroplating equipment, resource waste mainly occurs in metal sheets, plastic profiles, water resources, electric power, coatings, resins and processing scraps. Resource consumption can be reduced through product design, raw material blanking, processing technology, utility medium control, auxiliary material management and full life-cycle management.
1. Modular and Standardized Design
Adopt modular and standardized structural design to reduce non-standard components and unify part specifications, so as to cut blanking allowance of plates and pipes. Optimize the structure for lightweight design while meeting the requirements of strength and corrosion resistance to reduce metal consumption. Standardized parts facilitate maintenance and replacement, extend the service life of equipment, and reduce resource loss caused by scrapping the whole machine.
2. Raw Material Nesting and Inventory Control
Numerical control nesting software is used for layout and blanking of steel plates, PP plates, PVC plates and other materials to improve material utilization and reduce scraps. Materials are picked precisely according to orders with strictly controlled inventory to avoid scrapping caused by rusting and aging during long-term storage. Scraps are collected by material type, and reusable materials are stored separately.
3. Processing Technology Optimization
Adopt precision cutting and bending processes to reduce waste generated from secondary processing. Optimize welding processes to control welding material consumption and lower the rework rate of grinding. Precisely control the dosage of resin and coating in rubber lining for corrosion protection and spraying procedures to reduce auxiliary material waste caused by excessive coating.
4. Water Conservation
Set up collection, sedimentation and recycling systems for water used in pressure testing of electroplating equipment and component cleaning. High-pressure low-flow cleaning is adopted to replace high-flow flushing to reduce water consumption.
5. Energy Conservation
Rationally arrange the layout of workshop processes, shorten workpiece transportation distance and cut energy consumption of hoisting and conveying equipment. Select energy-saving cutting, welding and drying equipment. Arrange high-energy-consuming processes such as heat treatment and drying in a concentrated manner to reduce power loss caused by frequent start-up and shutdown of equipment.
6. Control of Auxiliary Materials and Hazardous Chemicals
Adhesives, resins, curing agents and diluents are distributed quantitatively on demand to prevent expiration and scrapping caused by over-taking. Hazardous chemicals shall be stored in sealed containers to reduce volatilization loss. Reusable packaging containers are recycled for cyclic use.
7. Full Life-cycle Management
Establish material consumption ledgers for each process, calculate the loss rate and carry out continuous improvement. Protect workpieces to avoid rework and scrapping resulting from collision damage. Take equipment disassembly performance into consideration at the design stage. After the decommissioning of electroplating equipment, metal components and plastic tanks are sorted for recycling and reuse.