No More “Either Or”

Wouldn’t it be great if you could have it all? With no more decisions about where to allocate your equipment budget or which purchases to prioritize, you could fill your facility with everything you need to maximize efficiency and increase profitability.

Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as an industrial operation that has access to endless financial resources. At least we’ve never encountered one in the history of our company, which spans more than 70 years and thousands of equipment installations around the world. When the rubber hits the road, decision-makers will understandably allocate funds to the front-line systems that keep their primary operation running. The systems that handle the byproducts of the operation – specifically scrap metal and spent fluids – are often regarded as nice-to-haves or written off as afterthoughts.

Give Me an R, Give Me an O, Give Me an I

With any expenditure, the question that comes to mind most frequently is “what is the return on investment?” How long will it take you to recoup the money you originally spent on the asset, and might that asset’s ROI be so favorable that it can actually fund other expenditures down the road?

The second part of that question probably sounds like another “perfect world” scenario, and we know things are never perfect in business. But it’s also well within the realm of possibility, especially when you move scrap processing, fluid recycling, and wastewater reclaim systems closer to the top of your priority list.

Here are two examples of this approach in action:

Changing Attitudes About Wastewater

Wastewater treatment in the metalworking industry is typically implemented to reduce costs, enhance plant safety, comply with environmental regulations, and mitigate financial penalties and liability. Historically, as metalworking companies have evaluated their wastewater treatment goals against a return-on-investment objective, the two have not always been aligned. PRAB’s broad spectrum of industrial wastewater treatment technologies has diminished this dilemma. Now, achieving goals and meeting reasonable ROI expectations are feasible with tailored wastewater treatment systems.

Recently, we partnered with a machine tool manufacturer to overhaul its wastewater management processes to mitigate rising water use and eliminate the need for hazardous waste disposal virtually. The client was on the cusp of crossing a threshold for hazardous waste generation, where the EPA imposes more stringent regulatory requirements and larger potential fines. By implementing a new wastewater recycling and reuse process, the company could maintain small-waste-producer status while saving an estimated 300 gallons of water per day.

The solution was a custom-engineered Ultrafiltration Wastewater Treatment System from PRAB, which has been in operation since November 2014. The system has proved effective at slashing new water costs and dramatically cutting the expense of waste hauling and water recovery. In addition, it has reduced Chromium levels in wastewater from 40 PPM to 0.05 PPM (EPA requires < 5 PPM) and delivered an estimated total return on investment of 18 months.

The Benefits of Briquetting

On the metal scrap side, compacting loose chips into briquettes is just one way to maximize ROI with metal scrap processing. When an aerospace manufacturing client of ours increased its machining capacity by 800 percent, the resulting increase in aluminum chip volume warranted a re-examination of its scrap-handling process. The client took a closer look at briquetting (Chip Processing Equipment), evaluated several equipment options, and ultimately selected our Dualpak™ briquetter based on its features and benefits as well as PRAB’s reputation.

The Dualpak solution reduced scrap volume by 12.5 times compared to loose aluminum chips, and increased the amount the client’s metal recycler was willing to pay for the scrap by 17 percent. Additional benefits included increased savings from coolant recovery and recycling enabled by the briquetting process, and improved productivity for machinists who previously had to spend considerable time handling chips both inside and outside the facility. All told, the client saw a 100 percent return on investment in less than 30 months, with 100 percent profit from the Dualpak system after that.

Reinvesting Those Profits

When a wastewater or scrap system reaches the point where it has paid for itself and is generating pure profit, that’s when you can use the additional revenue – which wouldn’t have existed without the wastewater or scrap system – to fund your other equipment expenditures. At PRAB, we understand that prioritizing these systems requires a reversal of conventional thinking and a leap of faith. The examples we’ve related here are just two of the real-world ROI success stories we’ve achieved for our customers; there are hundreds more where those came from. We welcome the opportunity to partner with you and add your story to the list.