Three years ago the Munich-based HAWE Hydraulik SE decided to set up an environmental management system. Getting five factories certified constitutes an important element of this management system. At the end of November 2010 the company's factory in Sachsenkam/Germany became the fourth site successfully to pass the audit in accordance with the environmental management standard DIN EN ISO 14001. It confirms legal compliance with the environmentally relevant laws and standards from the local district level through to the EU level. In addition, the audit also means implementation of HAWE-internal requirements, which themselves are already based on the high standards applicable in factories already certified.
HAWE Hydraulik has been operating a factory in Sachsenkam since 1977. In 2008 the foundation stone was laid for a modern new building, for which the construction work was completed in 2010. Planning for the new factory workshops offered a unique opportunity to consider the best possible protection for people and the environment. As a consequence, heat pumps now generate two-thirds of the required energy for heating and warm water as well as for cooling the workshops and offices during summer. The factory floor has state-of-the-art coating that prevents chemical substances seeping into the soil and groundwater. Compressed air is supplied with almost no leakage, which in turn reduced its energy uptake. The heat generated during supply of compressed air is used for heating service water.
Among other things, the environment management audit also saw the waste concept being rearranged and newly implemented. It now provides for a separation of waste by metal types, into dangerous and non-dangerous categories, with the disposal and re-use following suit accordingly. As part of the hazardous material management the number of hazardous substances, such as oil, anti corrosion agents and cooling lubricants were cut by 30%.
A further investment into the future are the training sessions for employees covering such environmentally relevant topics as waste avoidance, energy saving or handling of hazardous substances. The aim is for substantially bringing down the factory's energy and raw material requirements. In keeping with the objective, the consumption of water, electric power, oil, cooling lubricants and compressed air as well as waste cycles are set to be
analyzed in future to ascertain further potential for savings.
On the 6,000 sqm floor space of the Sachsenkam factory HAWE Hydraulik manufacturers various hydraulic valves and hand pumps. The products are deployed in hydraulic solutions installed in concrete pumps, truck cargo cranes, forklifts, solar trackers, wind power plants, machining tools, presses and many other applications besides.
