Our “Reman” business involves the remanufacturing of used engines, transmissions, and other key components of construction and mining equipment into “Remanned” components. After confirming that these remanufactured parts are possessed of the same quality as newly manufactured components, we inject them back into the market. We currently promote the “Reman business at 11 “Reman” Centers worldwide.
We have established the Reman-Net, which connects Reman centers with one another, and K-WINS, which shares Reman technological information, and are actively using them for the global expansion of Reman operations and reuse/recycling. In addition, by using IC tags and two-dimensional codes, we manage the recycling history of remanned components to control quality and obtain durability data, and then provide feedback that is important for Komatsu to develop components with optimal lifespans.
Komatsu is working on the conservation and effective use of limited resources by reusing critical materials used in products, etc.
An increasing number of diesel engines, which are used in construction machines, are now equipped with exhaust gas processing devices to reduce the density of NOx (nitrogen oxide) and PM (particulate matter) in exhaust gases. The exhaust gas processing devices use noble metals as a catalyst to reduce the density of NOx and PM. To effectively use these resources, Oyama Plant in Japan, for example, collects the exhaust gas processing devices of construction machines that have been replaced and recycles the noble metals in them. They are also recycling other critical materials to make them reusable, ensuring their effective use and aiming to reduce the consumption of new critical materials.
Komatsu promotes activities to reduce waste discharged from its production activities while also implementing "zero emission" activities to recycle and effectively use the generated waste.
We set a new medium-term global goal in FY2019 and began waste reduction activities mainly at bases with metal-casting processes, which generate approximately 70% of the entire waste volume. By turning waste into a valuable commodity and improving the methods for management of metal-casting waste sand, the waste generated per unit of production recorded a 12.7% reduction from FY2010 levels. After 2020, we will promote reduction activities primarily at foundries in Japan and overseas to meet new medium-term targets.
| Item | FY2018 | FY2019 | Target of FY2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Index of waste generated per unit |
98.3 |
87.3 |
60 |
《Japan》
《Overseas》
Independent Practitioner's Assurance
Amount of Generated Waste (Scope of data: Komatsu Ltd. and the Komatsu Group manufacturing facilities)
The Komatsu America Corporation's (KAC) plant in Peoria, IL, USA manufactures mining equipment and warehouses related service parts. The team purchases components from suppliers and performs value-added manufacturing, before shipping these equipment or parts to customers all over the world.
During the manufacturing processes, waste is generated and historically it was either sent out for recycling or sent for disposal in a landfill. Over the past 10 years, the plant has successfully improved the ratio of recycling from 58.8% in 2010 to 100% in 2019.
Some of the initiatives that helped achieve the goal include:
・Raising employee awareness and knowledge about recycling, as well as training employees to segregate waste streams
・Fostering better inventory management and usage habits to eliminate unnecessary waste generation
・Sending the remaining waste to a waste-to-energy facility
Between 2010 and 2016, the Peoria plant was able to achieve 94% recycling of all waste streams. The remaining 6% was still being sent to a landfill.
Beginning in January 2016, the team found a solution for the remaining 6% by sending it to a waste-to-energy processing facility. Now the final 6% of Peoria’s waste is used in a fuel blend to create steam, which is converted into electricity and transmitted to the local electric power grid.
It was a full team effort and took time. The entire Peoria team is very proud of finding ways to reduce our environmental footprint and contribute to society’s sustainable future in even more ways.
In FY2019, we set new global mid-term targets for water usage in our domestic and overseas manufacturing facilities and launched initiatives to reduce water consumption.
We have managed to reduce water use per unit of internal manufacturing by 49.4% compared to FY2010 by reducing waste through the re-use of water within processes and daily management with a focus on sites in the Hokuriku area that use a lot of groundwater.
We will promote further water usage reduction activities domestically and overseas to meet a new medium-term target after 2020.
| Item | FY2018 | FY2019 | Target of FY2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Index of water input volume per unit |
51.6 |
50.6 |
40 |
《Japan》
《Overseas》
Independent Practitioner's Assurance
Water Input Volume (Data coverage: Komatsu Ltd. and the Komatsu Group manufacturing facilities)
After the assembly of an engine, we perform an operational test on the test bench to check its performance. In the test, we add a rust-proofing oil to the engine cooling water. When the testing of one device was complete, the cooling water was discharged from the device and processed with chemicals and microorganisms at a final purification treatment facility, and then discharged out of the plant.
Now, to reduce water consumption and the volume of discharged water to be processed, we worked on cooling water circulation in the engine test bench and achieved a significant reduction of water consumption. We have installed a diaphragm-type pump collection device that does not affect the performance of the parts in the engine and a filtering device to enable the reuse of water. As a result, we achieved the reuse of 75% of the cooling water, resulting in a significant reduction of water consumption and the volume of processed, discharged water. In addition, this also eliminated reprocessing at the final purification treatment facility, which has also reduced electric power and chemical consumption drastically.