Enware Australia – which has more than trebled its turnover and investment in Australian manufacturing over the last decade – is a champion of efficient local manufacturing and a producer of innovative solutions to some of the major safety and water conservation issues facing this country.
The company’s water recycling project, which is now in service, involves an EPA-approved chrome plating plant built to maintain Enware’s environmental priorities and exacting product quality standards delivered through its team of 170 staff and branches extending throughout Australia and also in Singapore and Dubai.
The new water recycling plant has proved in its first year of operation to save more than 1.3 million litres of water (equivalent to more than 20 backyard swimming pools), says Enware chief operations manager Adam Degnan.
• Equally as important, the recycling of water obviates the need to dispose of polluted water into the environment, by way of drains or expensive transport, storage and processing.
• Regeneration of water recycling and contaminant capture columns can be completed off site, increasing workplace safety. This eliminates the storage of chemicals on site and management of hazardous concentrated solution
• Removal of concentrated solutions of chemicals again enhances workplace safety and the quality of production processes.
• The system is fully integrated within the existing production line. Staff are fully trained to maintain the equipment and to optimize it for day-to-day operation.
• Because water is continuously recovered for reuse, greater quantities can be used for plating rinse water, improving plating finish. This obviates one of the problems of conventional plating systems, which need more fresh water to obtain higher process purity and better chrome finishes. The Enware system confines fresh water use to occasional topping up of evaporators.
“As water prices rise – which they inevitably will – our process will continue to save the company money while protecting the environment,” says Degnan. The plant – which complements and integrates into our modern manufacturing facility in Caringbah – was initially projected to use up to 25,000 litres of water a week.
Its operation was further required to involve the processing and storage of substantial quantities of chemicals involved and the extraction of waste solids, including heavy metals.
Enware’s recycling technology includes a closed water loop on plating rinse water, meaning the same water is re-used repeatedly ad infinitum, rather than being flushed away on a weekly basis.