says, including steel, aluminum, stainless steel and magne-
sium, among others.
"The polymer that is part of the phosphate coating serves
two purposes," Carpenter says. "First, it absorbs oils and
greases removed from the part, and by a chemical change these
become part of the polymer. When the polymer film is formed,
it actually seals the phosphate so that the pretreated parts will
resist corrosion for weeks without painting if stored indoors."
500+ Plants
The Plaforization system is in roughly 500 plants worldwide,
and has made a tremendous impact on finishers since it was
first introduced to the European market in the late 1960s. The
initial release of the system several decades ago was based on
chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethylene, methyl chlo-
roform and perchlorethylene. The benefits of these solvents
were that they had a quick drying rate, very good degreasing
power, and were also non-flammable, which happened to be a
big issue in European workplace protection.
At the Manhasset plant, the process for installing the new
system took just a few days to get up and running, and the
finishing line was using it quickly thereafter. The process
met the company's goal of going to a greener technology—
a result was met with applause by those in the Washington
region.
The Association of Washington Business, which serves as
the state's Chamber of Commerce and the Manufacturing
and Technology Association, gave Manhasset its Green
Manufacturing Award in 2014 for its use of the new system,
which it says generates zero waste and is more efficient.
The judges for the award evaluated firms' maximizing
energy efficiency levels, going above and beyond regulatory
requirements, minimizing waste from the production process
and reducing their carbon footprints.
"Our big motivation in this entire project was to be as
friendly to the ecology as we could," Roberts says. "At the
same time, we were looking for efficiencies and benefits to
our entire operation."
Roberts says that over the next few months he will evaluate
all the cost savings associated with the new Plaforization
system, but that he expects there to be a significant improve-
ment overall.
Big Advantages
"We have accomplished a lot of our objectives in so many
ways," he says. "After the wash-off and dry-off ovens were
Plaforization can work on nearly all metal substrates,
including steel, aluminum, stainless steel and magne-
sium, among others.
PRODUCTS FINISHING — pfonline.com
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