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Introduction

The Industrial Multimedia Branch's (IMB) research program in metal products manufacturing was developed to identify environmental problems and deliver solutions for environmental improvements based on sustainable technology to the industry. There are over 35,000 manufacturing establishments in the U.S. having the primary SIC code 34, indicating that their primary business involves metals fabrication as their principal business. About 90% are small businesses. In 1992, this manufacturing segment was considered by the Agency to rank in the top ten of the most polluting industries.

Pollution prevention opportunities mainly involve the: reduction in the use of toxics; the prevention of the formation of large volumes of wastewater, hazardous waste or air emissions containing toxic pollutants; and improvements in energy conservation. These efforts should enable this manufacturing category to improve environmental management and benefit from economies by speeding adoption of emerging technologies that will reduce waste and costs for environmental compliance and energy.

This program was designed to leverage resources by partnering with the several Federal Agencies which have well established programs in Advanced Manufacturing Technology research and development. The EPA has contributed resources to identify the P2 potential of emerging technologies and to catalyze their infusion into the existing technology transfer network.

Efforts recently addressed are:

advanced casting technologies

This project was developed to reduce pollution in the metal casting sector. The project was organized to address five problem areas: 1) demonstration of chlorine-free processing of aluminum alloys to reduce chlorine emissions to the environment; 2) increase productivity and reduce energy consumption in aluminum metal casting operations by eliminating risers; 3) investigate evaporative pattern casting to replace conventional bonded-sand casting; 4) explore technology to recycle zircon casting sands; and 5) define air emissions originating in intelligent cupola operations, a very large cooperatively funded program. Each of these areas has the potential to improve production while reducing heath risks by minimizing generation, or disposal, of potentially hazardous materials in a key part of the metals sector, the casting and foundry industry.

environmentally friendly metal working fluids

This project is a unique initiative to use criteria created by industry stakeholders to establish best practices for pollution prevention in the use of metal working fluids. The criteria include life-cycle costs, performance, regulatory requirements, and comparative risk. The objective is to prevent pollution before it is created by facilitating industry's use of both "greener" fluids and improved practices for using metal cutting fluids.  Information and processes were developed that identify considerations in fluid selection and management that should lead to more effective usage. In the short term, the project will permit manufacturers to minimize waste generation through more efficient implementation of current technology. In the long term, a methodology is proposed to provide to metal cutting fluid manufacturers and users a process to develop materials with greater availability that are "greener fluids" , i.e., that will be less expensive, generate less waste, and less harmful to the environment.

surface cleaning technologies

This project identified alternative surface cleaning technologies for use in metal cleaning and preparation to replace existing systems using hazardous chemical solvents and/or volatile solvents contributing to photochemical ozone depletion, the greenhouse effect and/or to wastewater toxics or hazardous wastes. The major efforts were directed toward  identifying  performance of various surface cleaning techniques as applied to cleaning problems identified as having high priority from the viewpoints of (1) needed pollution reductions, (2) the elimination of toxics and hazardous wastes, (3) number of installations impacted, and (4) cost savings.

Metal Forming Research Contact
(Assisting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under a Cooperative Agreement with the NCOA):

John Burckle
Senior Environmental Employee Program
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
26 West M. L. King Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45268
tel: (513) 569 - 7496
fax: (513) 569 - 7471
email: burckle.john@epa.gov

Office of Research & Development | National Risk Management Research Laboratory

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