President and CEO Texas Nameplate Co., AME Hall of Fame Honoree and Keynote speaker at the AME Dallas 2016 conference and host of plant tours, www.nameplate.com.
At Texas Nameplate Company (TNC), we enjoy new ideas, sometimes called innovation. Why after all these years did we and our whole industry continue to clean our painted substrates manually? Answer: Too many variables and too complicated to change.
Years of this same challenge within our industry and with our competitors, TNC took the bold move to design and build our own proprietary, patent pending, iSCRUBBER™ substrate cleaning system. The system is cost-effective, safe, environmentally friendly, and efficient. Most importantly, it produces a higher-quality product for our customers. Removing resist/mask used to be a labor-intensive process that could be dangerous to employees, harmful to the environment, and inefficient due to human error.
Here is a look at the old manual approach-Before iSCRUBBER™:
The “closed system” used in the iSCRUBBER™ process relieves these issues by safely removing resist, then rinsing and drying the sheets of metal in one quick pass. The results are perfectly clean sheets, little to no VOCs, recyclable solvent, and the near elimination of personal protection gear.
The iSCRUBBER™ is the centerpiece of the innovative process that has the potential to transform the nameplate industry, "I'm proud of our company for taking the initiative, risks, and investment necessary to make this a reality. We are excited to share this new innovative process and its benefits with our industry as well as explore how it can be used in other fields, such as pharmaceuticals and circuit board manufacturing. Here’s the new iSCRUBBER™ AFTER installation:
Now, you want to see some real home grown Texas made results?
BEFORE iSCRUBBER™ AFTER iSCRUBBER™
(based on one year of data) (based on one year of data)
30,000 rags used zero rags used
6240 hours labor used 1560 hours labor used
1300 gallons of solvent used 100 gallons of solvent used
8 tons of VOC discharged into air 4 tons of VOC discharged
52 PPE materials (gloves, aprons, etc.) Zero PPE materials
Cost: approx.. $125,000 Cost: approx... $32,000
Total approximate annual savings: $93,000
Cost of machine $240,000
Research/development $100,000
Return on Investment (ROI) 3.65 years
To see the iScrubber™ substrate cleaning system at work, click here: WATCH VIDEO
About Texas Nameplate Company: TNC has twice been recognized as a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, as both the smallest business to receive the award and the first small business to be honored twice.
