ford makes big green strides with…paint?
Ford Motor Company just announced that it is taking its 3-Wet painting technology global. The 3-Wet technology is part product, part process. Developed collaboratively by Ford and its suppliers, the 3-Wet technology eliminates the prep stage in a paint shop, allowing three layers of paint (primer, base, and enamel) to be applied one after another while each layer is still wet.
This results in a remarkable 20-25 percent savings in painting time while still, according to Ford, producing a superior product. Tim Weingartz, manager of Paint Material and Strategies for Ford, says:
The durability is every bit as good as Ford’s expectation for performance during customer usage, and we lead the industry…It’s not just to industry standards–it’s to Ford standards.
In addition to faster painting times, the new system reduces energy use by consolidating all the painting machinery necessary into a single integrated booth. With all the savings in energy, reduced labor and materials, Ford could save an estimated $10-$35 per vehicle by switching their paint shops to this new technology. If deployed globally – as Ford has begun to do in India, Mexico, Romania, and China – the company could see an annual savings of over $100 million.
This technology boasts some environmental advantages as well. By using the 3-Wet process there are 6,000 to 8,000 fewer metric tons of CO2 emissions per year compared with waterborne painting systems or conventional high-solvent-borne systems respectively. There is a also a five percent emissions savings of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
The 3-Wet process is not the only sustainable, green development Ford has made in the past few years. In several facilities, they have installed what they refer to as a “fumes-to-fuel” system, which converts paint shop emissions into energy for the entire plant. Ford says the “carbon beads are used to capture the VOCs, resulting in clean exhaust air. The VOCs are then released from the carbon beads and processed for use in the fuel cell. The fuel cell converts the VOCs into electricity.” The power generated by this process is about 1,500 kW of energy daily, or enough to power 150 homes. Fumes-to-Fuel will also eliminate 88 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions, and virtually all nitrous oxide emissions from the paint shop.
To see what else Ford had achieved in their quest for sustainability, we took a look at their latest sustainability report and found some notable and worthy figures.
- Ford reduced their global water use by 24 percent from 2000 to 2006. Which is about 6.8 billion gallons.
- Since 2000, they have cut energy at their global facilities by 34 percent, and CO2 emissions by 45 percent.
- Accelerated the development of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV), which they plan on introducing in North America from 2010 to 2012.
- Introduced the EcoBoost™ engine technology on new Lincoln MKS, Ford Flex and other vehicles to follow. EcoBoost uses gasoline turbocharged direct-injection technology to deliver up to 20 percent better fuel economy, 15 percent fewer CO2 emissions, and superior driving performance compared to larger-displacement engines.
Some have said that Ford is the “greenest” American car maker. They certainly have implemented a number of sustainable practices, and have for years–even before it was popular. What do you think, do they have what it takes to become the “greenest global” car maker?
[...] far this week we have written about one company implementing sustainable practices to increase productivity and save money, and another company pledging sustainable practices after a public campaign against them. Today to [...]