Sustainability is part of the corporate culture at LUKAS
Over the past few years, sustainability has changed from being a simple buzzword to becoming a philosophy that is taken seriously by many enterprises. What was initially suppressed by most as an unpleasant annoyance was actually characterised by fears of the consequences of what true sustainability involves: it’s far too expensive! How can companies still manage to grow when they’re sustainable? How can I stay competitive if our competitors carry on manufacturing abroad?
At the vast majority of companies this has now changed, and consumers are willing to spend more money on good quality products. LUKAS-ERZETT GmbH & Co. KG has been operating an energy management system for years now aimed at cutting energy consumption to a minimum.
One of the most important rational arguments for companies to strive towards greater sustainability is the efficient use of resources. Energy efficiency is one area in particular that offers considerable potential for savings. This is especially true in the current world situation where heating costs are a part of energy-saving strategies that cannot be neglected. The company’s production buildings in Engelskirchen (greater Cologne area) are being continually improved with regard to energy efficiency. The optimised heating system has saved energy over the past 10 years. Waste heat from the compressors is used to heat water and is fed into the heating systems.
Apart from the heating costs, reducing electricity consumption naturally also plays a key role. LUKAS began converting the company’s light sources to efficient and long-lasting LED lighting many years ago. Thanks to a large-scale solar power system on the roof of its own logistics centre, LUKAS has even been generating its own electricity for 10 years and can produce around 125,000 kW/h every year for its own consumption requirements.
LUKAS also attaches particular importance to the fact that all additionally purchased electricity is, without exception, either green or is generated by means of renewable energies in order to minimise unnecessary emissions and to support the development of renewable energies. With this in mind, the LUKAS vehicle fleet will also be converted to electric mobility in the future wherever possible. The first step here was to install several electric charging stations on the company premises.
Sustainability must be worthwhile, because many users initially regard the company’s economic efficiency as having the utmost priority. There are many opportunities in the tool industry to combine sustainability and efficiency. LUKAS aims to achieve the lowest possible energy consumption per manufactured product. With the aid of its proprietary energy management system, LUKAS has already achieved CO2 savings of over 10% in the last 5 years compared to previous conventional manufacturing processes. These savings are expected to rise by a further 2% over the next 5 years.
LUKAS produces and trades exclusively “Made in Germany” or “near Germany”. At the company, which specialises in the production, sale and consulting services for grinding, milling, polishing and cutting tools, power tools and an extensive range of accessories, the focus is on regional production. Materials are also purchased from local and regional suppliers wherever possible. This means that LUKAS not only reduces CO2 emissions due to short transport routes, but it also benefits from greater reliability and planning security on account of the shorter supply chains.
Beyond its own production, LUKAS is also committed to compliance with EU laws, creates jobs in the EU, and also pays its taxes and social security contributions solely within the European Union.
LUKAS uses cardboard packaging wherever possible for its own products and tools. Wood, as a renewable raw material, generally makes cardboard an extremely eco-friendly packaging material. In this context, the proportion of recycled material used in producing the packaging was increased once again last year. All LUKAS cardboard packaging already comprises 100% recycled waste paper.
The topic of sustainability and climate protection is becoming increasingly prevalent in the industry. This is undoubtedly due, on the one hand, to the fact that general awareness about sustainability is increasing, and users and customers are attaching more and more importance to the theme. On the other hand, the requirements where climate protection are concerned are also becoming more demanding – and are expected to become even more stringent in the future.
Waste recycling has long been common practice in the metalworking industry. Production waste such as metal shavings is collected by manufacturing plants and fed back into the raw metal reclaiming process. With a particularly high recycling rate for standard and production waste, LUKAS also focuses on sustainability by means of recycling in its own production processes. Residues from the production of grinding discs and mounted points, as well as rejects, are regularly collected, recycled and fed back into the material cycle.
LUKAS maintains the standard of its production furnaces and exhaust air treatment plants at the highest level, which allows energy savings of about 20-30% to be achieved compared to older systems. Modern production plants also guarantee reduced emissions and exhaust gases. For afterburning exhaust gases from the production furnaces, LUKAS relies on combustion systems powered by electricity from renewable sources.
Research with an eye on the future: LUKAS runs joint development projects with carbon-processing companies. Active research into tools for future-oriented lightweight construction is intended to ensure that LUKAS products will continue to remain progressive in the years to come. The best example of this research is the new CarbonCut burr from LUKAS, which is the ideal tool for industrial stationary milling, sawing and drilling (dipping) of innovative and premium high-tech materials such as carbon fibre-reinforced lightweight materials. Extremely sharp cutting edges and chip removal rates optimised as the result of research for milling carbon fibre-reinforced materials, together with the other product characteristics, contribute to the fact that the newly developed LUKAS CarbonCut can offer an extremely long service life in stationary applications.
Grinding tools and burrs are wear products, which means that it is particularly important to achieve the best possible operating times and efficiency. LUKAS combats wear: the experts at LUKAS focus as much as possible on attaining an especially long service life for its products which extends beyond the natural wear of individual components. On average, the service life of LUKAS products is double that of products from other manufacturers. On the one hand this reduces the number of tools that are thrown away since fewer tools are required in the first place, while at the same time less energy is consumed in the production due to the reduced manufacturing and sales volumes. In the long term, it is crucial for enterprises to review the sustainability of their entire production and supply chain in order to continue reducing emissions even further in the future.
And efficiency can be sustainable: experts at LUKAS are continually engaged in researching and investigating innovative manufacturing processes and materials that make production methods more efficient. In product manufacturing, LUKAS now only uses modern bonding systems. As a consequence, shorter curing times (that is, less furnace time) and less heat are required. This additionally reduces energy consumption in the production because even small factors like these make a difference.
Since 1994, LUKAS has considered it important to take sustainability into account in the selection of raw materials: the pioneering technological leader for system solutions launched carrier discs made of wood-based materials onto the market: the carriers for the Nawaroflex® lamellar flap disc have been made from renewable raw materials ever since. LUKAS also thinks in terms of sustainability when it comes to abrasive caps and only uses organically grown cotton in their production.
Additive manufacturing, as a process in itself, represents a sustainable form of production. This is demonstrated in particular by the fact that with 3D printing, the use of surplus material and therefore unnecessary waste are virtually eliminated right from the outset. LUKAS not only offers tools specially developed for additive manufacturing, but also conducts ongoing research with a team of experts into ways of optimising its own production methods using this manufacturing procedure. The ability to use generative design as a construction method plays a pioneering role with regard to component optimisation, and represents one of the main advantages of 3D printing compared to traditional, in particular subtractive, manufacturing methods. In their research work, LUKAS experts therefore rely on the active usage of 3D printers, for example in the production of prototypes.
LUKAS-ERZETT GmbH & Co. KG, which is based in the greater Cologne area in the Oberbergisch district, always acts from a sustainable standpoint in its manufacturing, retailing and offering of consulting services for grinding, milling, polishing and cutting tools, power tools and an extensive range of accessories. Regional production locations, sustainable and renewable raw materials, together with our proprietary energy management system, ensure that the sustainable alternative is always taken into consideration in every respect.