Producing without oil and emulsions …

The increasing energy consumption worldwide influences climate change. A considerable part of the additional energy needed is supplied by expensive oil. If oil is used as a lubricant in production, this means raw material consumption, environmental pollution and disposal costs. However, EVVA’s Clean Production (CP) protects the environment and resources because it works dry, i.e. it produces without oil or emulsions. The emulsions used in production do not contain oil. They consist of approx. 97% water, the rest is a non-hazardous chemical on which fungi can also grow.
 

… and without water

EVVA Clean Production is not only oil-free, but also 100% water-free. The cleaning of the parts with chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs) can thus be completely eliminated.
 

Clean Production:

Proportion of Clean Production machines (EVVA headquarters) in relation to the entire machinery

Triple sustainability:

Clean Production impressively demonstrates how well ecological, economic and social sustainability can complement each other.
 

Ecology:

The sustainable use of materials and resources has been defined as a key topic – Clean Production by EVVA is one of the strongest levers for this. The company introduced Clean Production machines many years ago to limit material consumption. In 2023, we were able to increase our CP share to 75% of the total machinery, i.e. approx. 300 machines already produce using this technology. As a result, we have successfully implemented this major goal that we set ourselves in 2020 on schedule.

2021 until 2023, EVVA put several new clean production systems into operation, e.g. for key cutting, cylinder bodys and one for the production of high-quality locking cylinder plugs – it was named "Constantin II" after a son of the owner family. Constantin II alone increased the CP share at EVVA by 5%. It already saved 5.8 tonnes of oil/water in the first year (28% of the total requirement for these two resources at the EVVA headquarters). Our purchasing costs for oil were decreased therefore by around 19,000 euros per year. This state-of-the-art Industry 4-0 system is perfectly prepared for networked applications. Processes are automated, such as the assembly. "Constantin II replaces several previously used machines” says project manager Johann Bunzengruber.

EVVA has invested several million euros in new CP systems since 2015. This saves us considerable resources:

The environmental benefits of EVVA's Clean Production since 2015. In 2022, thanks to CP, EVVA was able to save 1.3 tons of oil, 4 tons of emulsions and 32,000 liters of water


One downside is that a CP machine requires about 50-80% more electricity than a conventional oil-based system (because of the cooling units and the higher compressed air requirement, measured by compressed air consumption of the compressor control system). But it can often replace not only one, but several conventional machines, like with our cylinder plug machines. On average at EVVA, a single new CP machine replaces 3 to 5 systems previously used for the same purpose. A CP machine produces completely dry and does not require any of the usual downstream washing processes of the production parts to clean them of oil. Metal chips can also be recycled immediately without any cleaning. The higher power requirement is offset by high raw material savings, by avoiding cleaning and waste.

Economics

He who consumes less, also must buy less. In addition to the ecological effect mentioned above, at the current 75% proportion, our Clean Production saves around 250,000 euros per year in purchasing and disposal. Our demand for oil has halved in just a few years: from approx. 15 tonnes of oil in 2010 to 6.8 tonnes of oil in 2019. In 2022, the demand decreased again to 4.3 tonnes.

Another economic advantage: CP production enables a much faster production run of the components than with conventional machines (e.g. because the workpieces do not need to be de-oiled). E.g. a cylinder plug in just 10 seconds – instead of the 30 and more seconds required by the many machines previously used for this purpose. After approx. 10 years, our CP machines have paid for themselves.

Social aspects:

Working with oil can cause skin irritation. So the less needed, the better for the production staff.

 

Multiple award-winning

In recent years, EVVA has been awarded the City of Vienna's Environmental Award and the TRIGOS Sustainability Award for its sustainable, Clean Production innovation. After all, it is even better than recycling to be able to reduce the amount of resources required by yourself in the best possible way. Around half of them were designed, manufactured and assembled by our in-house mechanical engineering department. This is because there are often no suitable systems on the market, but rather they have to be specially designed and manufactured to meet our quality requirements. This know-how is something EVVA is proud of.