Wisconsin Program Helps Reduce Company's Operating Costs

December 2003

Wisconsin's Rexnord Industries Elastomer Division will save more than $55,000 per year in energy costs by optimizing its production operations and implementing a state-of-the art, Wisconsin-made heat recovery system. The new system captures heat traditionally lost in an incineration process and uses it to preheat combustion air for the company's burn-off ovens.

Wisconsin's Focus on Energy program, a public-private partnership that offers energy information and services to energy utility customers, teamed with Rexnord's utility, We Energies, along with contractor Environmental Systems, Inc., to provide technical and financial assistance to help offset energy efficiency implementation costs at Rexnord.

Rexnord, We Energies, and Focus on Energy collaborated on several measures to optimize the elastomeric molding company's production operations. The measures were first identified during a facility survey commissioned by We Energies. Environmental Systems installed covers on dip tanks, which contain buildup of potentially hazardous compounds, and a new control system that monitors and regulates the level of compounds in the room. The controls also allow the oxidizer to be shut off on weekends by covering the dip tanks, and feature safety switches that sense when the oxidizer can be powered down, such as slowing down or shutting off during all non-production times.