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AMI DODUCO Achieves Strategic Goals
AMI DODUCO Achieves Strategic Goals
Published 08-27-01
Submitted by Technitrol - Ami Doduco
AMI DODUCO has made an outstanding contribution to help clean-up Pennsylvania's environment and grow the economy. AMI DODUCO's active participation in the National Metal Finishing Strategic Goals Program (SGP) - a partnership between federal, state and local governments and industry - is changing the way it does business while producing benefits for the company and state residents along the way. AMI DODUCO's environmental programs have yielded annual savings of $79,000, a 2.5 million-gallon reduction in drinking water usage, a 700,000-gallon reduction in industrial wastewater, and the diversion of 27 tons of hazardous waste destined for landfills back into a commercial product.
The SGP is a voluntary partnership between industry, regulators and communities that rewards facilities for going beyond compliance with existing environmental standards. It encourages companies to set and achieve ambitious goals that improve environmental performance in a profitable manner. The goals help facilities conserve water, energy and metals, and reduce hazardous emissions. The program has resulted in nationwide reductions in sludge shipments to landfills by over 1 million pounds, wastewater discharges by 380 million gallons, and organic chemical releases by 700,000 pounds.
AMI DODUCO employs a number of metalworking processes, including powder metallurgy and melt/cast technologies, welding, brazing, precision part stamping and electroplating and finishing operations. The company joined the SGP in 1997 in order to ensure continued advanced environmental compliance in keeping with the company policy.
The company has now met the SGP goals through a variety of innovative programs. For example, an extensive, ongoing total quality management program generates continuous improvement ideas in all business processes, including environmental management. This spurred the development of AMI DODUCO's patented, closed multi-loop water-to-water heat exchanger system, which supplies process cooling water with a minimal capital investment, significantly lower energy usage, no use of city water supplement and with a zero discharge. This system earned AMI DODUCO the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence in 1999.
The company also replaced cleaning and finishing compounds containing metal chelates with a mixture of basic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and soap mixture. This modification enabled AMI DODUCO to adopt a wastewater treatment method that achieves greater than 99.9% efficiency levels. Additional programs include: replacing vapor degreasers with alkali, ultrasonic degreasing systems, controlling rinse water usage, and replenishing plating baths with compatible rinse waters.
" Environmental compliance excellence is our goal at AMI DODUCO." Said Larry Gaudino, Director, Environmental Health and Safety, AMI DODUCO. "We believe that environmental compliance can be shifted from a competitive disadvantage to a competitive advantage. This is precisely what the Strategic Goals Program is all about."
Headquartered in Export, Pennsylvania, AMI DODUCO, a Technitrol Company (NYSE: TNL) is a global leader in electrical contact technology and fabrication. The company supplies contacts and assemblies, contact materials, thermostatic and laminated metal products, electroplating and surface treatment services, and precious metal refining and recycling to more than 3,000 customers. AMI DODUCO operates from 17 locations throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Its Web site is http://www.amidoduco.com
The Strategic Goals Program (SGP) is a breakthrough, voluntary partnership between the metal finishing industry, government and communities. The program features commitments from metal finishing facilities to conserve water, energy and metals, and reduce hazardous emissions. The SGP has the support of the U.S. EPA as well as major metal finishing trade associations represented by the National Association of Metal Finishers (NAMF), American Electroplaters and Surface Finishers Society (AESF), Metal Finishing Suppliers Association (MFSA) and the Surface Finishing Industry Council (SFIC). The SGP has more than 281 active industry participants, 21 states and 84 local agencies engaged in its efforts.
