On July 17, 2013, Bosch Rexroth, a manufacturer with several sites in the United States, was given Green Manufacturer magazine’s Silver award for its Sytronix variable-speed hydraulic pump. Green Manufacturer is a North American trade magazine that encourages and spotlights manufacturers who produce effective and sustainable products that do not contaminate or harm the earth, water, or air. The magazine holds a yearly Product Innovations competition. The Sytronix pump won the award for the 2013 competition.
Green Manufacturer’s Products Innovations competition was open to any company in the manufacturing industry who had some new products to show. Those which took special importance are those which had or will have a significant impact on the environment. One of those products was Bosch Rexroth’s Sytronix. The winner was decided by a committee of industry experts who examined the features of Sytronix and Bosch Rexroth’s commitment to sustainability at all of its U.S. manufacturing facilities.
Hydraulic pumps have a great variety of uses in the manufacturing industry. The top uses for a pump such as the one made by Sytronix are metal working and pressing and the processing of plastics. The different between the Sytronix pump and a regular hydraulic pump is that the speed of a regular pump is not regulated. With the Sytronix pump, the pump speed up and power is used only when needed. Hence, power is not wasted when it is not going to be used. As a result, the pump does not get as a hot as a normal pump because it is not constantly working. Since there is not as much heat produced, not as much energy is used to cool down the pump. In total, the Sytronix pump can save anywhere from 30 to 80 percent in energy use. A nice additional feature of the Sytronix variable-speed pump is that is less noisy than regular pumps.
Bosch Rexroth, which has manufacturing sites in 80 countries throughout the world, has proven its dedication to greener manufacturing in other areas. For instance, it is ISO 14001 registered, which means it is trying to adhere to the world-wide environmental management system criteria for a corporation. Furthermore, it has implemented a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at all its plants. In industry, carbon dioxide is produced when fossil fuels are used and through certain chemical reactions, such as those used to produce cement, iron, and steel. The aim of this plan is to reduce these emissions by at least 25 percent in seven years. Bosch Rexroth’s Fountain Inn, South Carolina plant was recently awarded for its Fountain Green project which aims to reduce hazardous wastes, promotes recycling, and provides greener solvents than those commonly used in companies for manufacturing. In addition, Bosch Rexroth is recycling 100,000 hydraulic pumps that would ordinarily be dumped, and plans to refurbish these pumps so that they can be used again. Green Manufacturer stated that these factors contributed to Bosch Rexroth eligibility for the Innovator’s award.
