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in Vol. 24 - July Issue - Year 2023
Energy-efficient Production Reduces User’s Carbon Footprint and Abrasive Consumption
In the induction furnaces, stainless steel is melted and then atomized, creating the spherical CHRONITAL
The angular GRITTAL (left) and the spherical CHRONITAL in comparison
CHRONITAL is mainly suitable for cleaning, deburring, and edge rounding
The angular GRITTAL is formed by crushing the granules
Aluminum castings after blasting
About VULKAN INOX: VULKAN INOX GmbH, founded in 1985, specializes in the development and production of durable and corrosion-resistant abrasives for a variety of blasting tasks in surface finishing on different metallic and mineral materials. Examples are deburring and edge rounding, desanding and descaling, roughening and structuring, as well as smoothing and cleaning. The basis of the product range is the spherical CHRONITAL and the angular GRITTAL, which are used alone or in combination. At the heart of production are two high-performance induction melting furnaces, which are mainly used to melt recycled scrap. At the company headquarters in Hattingen, 63 employees work in development, production and administration. More than 30 representative offices worldwide stand for competent technical advice, reliable delivery, and fast service.
At GIFA 2023, VULKAN INOX has showcased CHRONITAL and GRITTAL blasting abrasives that has been produced by the company exclusively with renewable energy since 2022. By doing so, VULKAN INOX improves the eco-balance of its customers, because the blasting media they purchase brings a significantly smaller CO2 footprint. In addition, the reusable stainless steel blasting abrasives reduce consumption to just a few percent, compared with mineral-based ones. Thus, when blasting metal work pieces, they make a significant contribution to the sustainability of production.
Vulkan Inox is the first manufacturer to supply stainless steel blasting abrasives which are produced and used in a particularly environmentally friendly manner and can be reused: They are made from melted steel scrap and are completely recycled back into the metal cycle - a prime example of functioning recycling management.
Since last year, Vulkan Inox has been using 100 percent regenerative electrical energy for its induction furnaces. As a result, the blasting media leave the plant in Hattingen with an outstandingly small CO2 footprint. When used by customers, it significantly improves the eco-balance, because they wear very slowly on impact with the work pieces and cycle again and again in a closed circuit. VULKAN’s blasting media reduce the amount of abrasives used to just a few percent of the quantities previously required, compared with mineral materials.
The high dimensional stability of the individual stainless steel grains prevents the formation of dust and noticeably improves working and visibility conditions. In addition, their use reduces the amount of waste and the cost of disposal.
Christian Hoffmann, Sales Manager at VULKAN INOX, knows that his customers are making great efforts to reduce their own footprint. Once again, he sees Vulkan Inox as a pioneer in its industry: “We have made many adjustments: As a starting material, we deliberately buy secondary input materials with a low CO2 footprint. Since 2022, we have been operating our induction furnaces with electricity generated from renewable sources and implementing waste heat recovery to power the drying process. Overall, we have reduced CO2 emissions from our own and third-party energy sources (Scopes 1 and 2) by 87 percent since 2018, meaning that we are conserving valuable resources. Our goal is to convert the entire process so that gas will no longer be required.”
For Information:
VULKAN INOX GmbH
Christian Hoffmann
Gottwaldstraße 21
45525 Hattingen, Germany
Tel. +49.2324.5616-0
E-mail: christian.hoffmann@vulkan-inox.de
