gREenMANUFACTURING

GKN has developed and installed a recycling system to collect and regenerate old grease and re-use it in the remanufacturing process of driveshafts for the aftermarket.
The recycling process works in the following way:

• Grease is collected from the OEM plant and put in the clean barrels (from new grease)
• Next, the grease is filtered four times to remove particles and matter. Firstly grease is filtered to: 4 mm, then 1mm, next to 0.5 mm and finally to just 0.2 mm
• The grease is then ready to be reused in remanufactured driveshafts

The idea has so impressed the organisers and the Jury of the Automechanika exhibition in Germany (16 – 21 September 2008) that it will be featured in a ‘Green Directory’ to promote environmental best practice at the event in Frankfurt.
Phil Limbach, GKN Industrial & Distribution Services’ Sales Director Emerging Markets, commented: “We are delighted that GKN IDS has successfully been included in the Automechanika Green Directory as one of only 25 entries out of a total of 73 applications and 4,600 exhibitors. It highlights our ability as a company to find new and innovative ways to minimise our effect on the environment. Our new process for the treatment of used oil in our remanufacturing plants will help considerably to reduce our environmental waste.”
Remanufacturing driveshafts for the aftermarket across the world has been a major business of GKN Industrial & Distribution Services for many years already. Two GKN plants in France and Spain are specialized in reconditioning used driveshafts according to OES specifications. Taking cores back from the garages and remanufacturing them for the car repair business has many major advantages: Saving raw material (steel, grease), saving costs and providing the full range of best quality replacement parts , even for old cars, for which driveshafts will no longer be in serial production.

• More details
• Brochure download

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