Clean Factories - Chemical Substance Management at Factories

Yokkaichi Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. looked into the causes of waste generation and material loss in its manufacturing process to reduce its environmental impact at the manufacturing stage.
   In the conventional process, waste acetone was generated when it was used to wash and remove remaining varnish when replacing resin for use in general products with resin for use in halogen-free products. However, thorough examinations showed that the presence of a small amount of varnish will still assure the quality and properties of products. Thus, there is no need for acetone to be used to remove remaining varnish. Also, the company confirmed that the blending a small amount of extracted remaining varnish, which used to be disposed of, in the following manufacturing process would not cause any problem in the quality and properties of the products. Through these efforts, the company was able to reduce the use of acetone by 12.8 tons and the weight of remaining varnish by 4.8 tons on an annual basis.

[Related Data File]

• Management of chemical substances according to three ranks
• Reduction of Key Reduction-Target Substances
• Breakdown of release/transfer of Key Reduction-target Substances
• Breakdown of substances requiring management
• (Japan)Reduction of chemicals use in production facility improvement