Case Study:
Hybrid Phantom Technology Delivers Remarkable Sustainable Benefits
The Phantom coform technology is developed by P&G and licensed exclusively to Oerlikon Nonwoven Teknoweb Materials for its further development and commercialization.
This technology offers a notably simplified productive process and produces disposable substrates by combining coaxMELT (PLA, PP and others) with cellulose pulp. This coform solution does not need hydroentanglement and the ensuing drying, and delivers significant energy and cost savings while still ensuring a high-quality product.
Phantom plants are used to produce high-quality substrates for wet baby wipes, diapers’ absorbent cores and hygienic, medical and filtering products. The disposable wipes produced by Phantom were analyzed by the Manchester University in compliance with ISO standards 14040 and 14044, which provided the sustainable impact of these wipes compared to established complex carded and spunlace systems.
The carbon footprint of the Phantom substrate, according to the study, is 43% lower than the traditional PP spunlace’s footprint: the Phantom’s footprint is equal to 2.95 t CO2 eq./t, compared to the 5.2 t CO2 eq./t of the spunlace’s footprint. Furthermore, Phantom uses 40% less energy, low consumption (0.2 m³ versus 2.7 m³ of the spunlace for each T of substrate produced) or waste of water (0 versus 1.1 m³ of the spunlace for each T of substrate) and 10% lower ozone level. With respect to other environmental categories, the Phantom process can lower impacts up to 87%, for example fossil depletion (- 43%), metals and minerals depletion (- 51%), acidification potential (- 57%), human toxicity potential (- 32%), ecotoxicity potential (- 87%) and so on.
Eco-friendly Coating for Award-winning BMW part
Oerlikon Balzers’ coating, based on its ePD technology, is a REACH-compliant alternative to hazardous chrome VI. The coating is used to integrate intelligent functionalities such as camera technology, radar function and other sensors in the new BMW iX’s kidney grille. For this innovative kidney grille, BMW received a Grand Award from the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Employee initiatives resulted in >USD 2.7 million in cost savings
Launched in April 2020, the “Metco Bucks” program encourages employees to submit cost saving, sustainability and cultural improvement proposals and rewards them for their impact. In 2021, the program saw 75 submissions of initiatives that cover safety, yield and process improvements, which resulted in ~USD 1.5 million in cost savings and avoidance. Total cost savings and avoidance since the launch of the program was ~USD 2.7 million.
Among its successes: A process operator, Marlon Bourne, was credited with saving the company USD 63 831 in 2020 alone as a result of ideas that he submitted. Another employee, Warren Rose, a Process Operator Lead, saved Oerlikon > USD 168 000 with a number of ideas, including blending powders differently to get better yield, correcting screen size to reduce scrapping of nonconforming products and adding a second tank to allow two different materials to be batched simultaneously, resulting in less cleaning downtime during changeovers.
SUPPORTING LOCAL EDUCATION IN INDIA
As part of our social commitment to the local communities in which we work, Oerlikon responded when a village located near our facility in Chennai required assistance in providing classroom capacity for 125 middle school students. When we learned that the locally managed school authority had no proper schoolrooms available, we assumed responsibility for funding and overseeing the construction of a 1 200 square foot building with three classrooms and one bathroom. The total budget for the project is more than CHF 30 000 (INR 2.589 million). Construction of the middle school building, where 65 girls and 60 boys will attend classes, is scheduled to be completed by June 2022.
