Clean water is a limited natural resource. GF Linamar’s rainwater collection system enables the facility to reuse rainwater for cooling circuits in high-pressure die-casting production process and reduce the demand of domestic water usage. Read how it works.
All of us know how important it is to protect our planet – and every one of us can develop strategies on how to reduce our environmental footprint on a personal level. We at GF Casting Solutions have a strong focus on projects that contribute to the protection of our environment and during the last year, we put a lot of effort into several projects worldwide that make our production sites more sustainable.
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Although 2/3 of the earth is covered with water, less than 1% is fresh and readily available for human consumption. Thus, it’s vitally important to discover opportunities to limit our demand of this finite natural resource. The project recently realized at the high-pressure die-casting facility of GF Linamar, a joint-venture of GF and Linamar, has this very goal to save public utility supplied clean water.
The rainwater collection system at GF Linamar collects stormwater from 275,000 square feet (~25,550 square meters) of roof space. The stormwater is then consolidated within two external cistern tanks and conditioned to facilitate process-cooling measures within the High-Pressure Die-Casting machines. Zackary Welch, Environment, Health and Safety Manger at GF Linamar and Division Sustainability Officer expects that the company will be able to collect up to 300,000 Gallons (~1.13 million liters) of rainwater during only one major rainfall event.
The stormwater is collected from the roof space and consolidated within two cistern tanks.
“The captured rain water is collected and used in the daily manufacturing processes at GF Linamar. The collected rainwater is fed to three cooling towers onsite. The stormwater trickles over the closed loop, internal water process pipe and decreases the water temperature before it’s fed back into HPDC process. This system helps in maintaining the desired die temperature parameters to ensure high-quality automotive components are produced.”
Built in 2017, the GF Linamar site in Mills River, NC (USA) is the youngest high-pressure die casting plant within GF Casting Solutions, and was built incorporating the latest technology and environmental standards. These efforts helped the facility achieve the USGBC LEED Silver certification. Being the first HPDC site worldwide to hold such a renowned certification.
