Every day at the Grundfos foundry 25 tons of aluminium go through a process of being melted down so that this material can reinvent itself as a range of new pump components. This is all part of Grundfos’ sustainable ambitions where caring for resources takes on a practical meaning at Grundfos’ own foundry.
This aluminium itself comes from a range of sources including car and bicycle components, cans as well from pump process offshoots before it is melted and becomes part of the next generation of sustainable Grundfos pumps. In fact so successful is this project that every year, some 13.5 million new units are cast by the 100 employees within the department, becoming almost 50 different pump components that include stator housing, electronics parts, flanges and tops for terminal boxes.
The current die cast plant in Denmark is in itself unusual as its chimney makes use of an electrostatic filter that efficiently purifies the smoke. The filter is the only filter in the world that is used within a die cast plant situation. Not only that but Grundfos have reduced the energy usage in the foundry by 50 per cent since 1992.
It is easy to talk about sustainability. However, some companies like Grundfos can actively demonstrate this by showing how thinking outside the box can have a positive impact, on many levels.
