Dust nuisance in the surrounding area of the MOTOR JIKOV Slévárna foundry facility at Kněžskodvorská Street in České Budějovice dropped to a minimum due to an investment in a new 13.2 million Crown sand management exhaust system. March tests proved a decrease of dust emissions. The Foundry employs 76 people.
“This improvement of our employees’ working environment is significant, while we also aim to operate the Foundry with a minimal impact on our environment. Although this investment in the exhaust system is not productive in terms of income, we implemented it. I must admit that the high level of the dust nuisance of the operation worried me. However, the work environment today is in top form,“ said Miroslav Dvořák, the general director of MOTOR JIKOV Group.
MOTOR JIKOV Slévárna will also continue improving both its working environment as well as impacts on nature this year. “The investment in sand management exhaust technology, two blasting machines and grinding at twelve grinding machines was CZK 12.6 million and a further 0.6 million we had to invest in construction works, wiring and air supply systems. We’ve prepared a second phase of investments this year totalling CZK 5.5 million, including the exhaust system for medium frequency furnaces and a DISA moulding line, which also serves as a cooling agent for castings,“ said Radek Mach, the director of the Foundry Division of MOTOR JIKOV Slévárna.
New technology enables recirculating the exhausted air back to the factory halls and thus the environmental load of the operation has been reduced significantly. “At the same time it should also lead to further savings of heat costs in winter; no longer will there be the obligation to measure emissions and consequently have to buy emission permits,“ said Radek Mach.
The technology was supplied by Herding, Environmental Technology, which uses its own patented technology of filter media with a life span of up to fifteen years. The unit is divided into three parts, i.e. in case one or two parts fail, the foundry can still operate with no environmental impact on its surroundings. Five stacks of wet separators, which could be seen on the roof of the Foundry from the surroundings, disappeared and were replaced with three simple stacks, which will be used only during summer.
New technology investments have a rather quick return on investment.. When including the necessary investments in the wet separators, the investment payback curve intersects the cost curve for keeping the original technology working already after approximately three years. The new exhaust solution will meet the high ecological demands, which are becoming more and more strict., for at least another twenty years.
