Harbec and Arburg find sustainability is just good business

Harbec, Inc., an Ontario, NY, contract manufacturer of tight tolerance, precision injection-moulded parts and assemblies, machined metal components and tooling, has found it has a lot in common with Arburg, the German manufacturer of injection moulding machines, whose U.S. headquarters are in Rocky Hill, CT. , and regional Technology Centres are located in Elgin, IL and Irvine, CA.

That applies not only to plastics processing but also to environmental sustainability, a key business priority for both companies. Harbec, which has been carbon-neutral since 2013 and water neutral since 2015 and plans to be zero waste to landfill by 2022, could be a model for how a manufacturer can operate sustainably and profitably. And Arburg under its “arburgGREENworld” programme, aims to continuously increase production efficiency in all areas of plastics processing, to reduce its carbon footprint over the long term, to find solutions for circular economy, and to support their customer in processing recyclates and bioplastics.

For Bob Bechtold, President of Harbec, it all started a long time ago when, as a child, he says he was fascinated by the forces of nature… how the wind could lift a kite into the air or how sunlight passing through a magnifying glass could burn wood.

Bechtold, a toolmaker by trade, founded Harbec as a general-purpose machine shop in 1977. Over the years, the business has evolved to the point where, now, about 60% of its business is plastics injection moulding.  They still operate 47 CNC machining centres and 3-axis to 7-axis milling machines, but they now also have 36 injection-moulding machines including 5 energy-efficient Allrounders from Arburg. Key markets include medical, aerospace, defence and security, high-end industrial components and high-performance electromagnetic components. They mould over 350 different resin compounds making such products as precision lenses, medical testing devices, precision automotive vent disks, microfluidic elements, etc.

A different approach

Bechtold and his employees take a different view of sustainability than many other businesses, particularly American companies. Twenty years ago, when he proposed ideas that would aggressively move Harbec in the direction of sustainability, Bechtold encountered a lot of resistance. Bankers refused to help fund his solar, wind and clean energy projects. And, while other plastics processors agreed that environmental responsibility was a worthy pursuit, the prevailing view was the kind of projects Bechtold proposed were too costly or would compromise business profitability.

That is when Bechtold changed his approach. “I took six months,” he says, “and I put together a case that never mentioned the environment. I proposed the exact same projects, but I only talked about numbers… about economic opportunities. And this time, I was successful. I made sustainability a part of my business model and it's lucrative. It greatly helps our company to control our bottom line and makes positive impact. That’s the part that resonates with people.”

The effort began in earnest in 2000-2001 when Harbec began installing gas-powered combined heat and power (CHP) micro-turbines that not only generate electricity – needed to power the company’s injection-moulding machines and other equipment -- but also capture heat to provide useful thermal energy. Rather than venting the exhaust heat resulting from power generation into lakes, rivers or the atmosphere as commercial power plants do, Harbec captures it, creating hot water for radiant space heating. Hot water is also used, with the help of absorptive chillers, to create 44-to-47-degree cold water that is used to air condition their facility. As a result, there are no furnaces, boilers or air conditioners at the company.

A 250-kW wind turbine was installed a couple of years later and energy conservation projects such as a lighting upgrade and barrel insulation followed. By the end of the decade, the CHP and wind turbine projects were fully paid off. Next came a new 850 kW wind turbine, a switch to LED lighting and an upgrade to Harbec CHP plant. A 350-kW solar power plant will soon be installed along with 1MW of energy storage to complete their state-of-the-art microgrid energy management system which will provide an added advantage called resiliency …no power outages for storms or other grid failures. What electricity they currently buy from the grid is 100% derived from green power sources and they purchase carbon offsets to compensate for any other energy expenditures (for vehicles and microturbines for instance) that result in emissions.  Harbec is third-party audited and certified to ISO 50001/SEP Platinum, the highest rating for energy management performance. In fact, according to the Department of Energy website, Harbec has the 5th highest energy usage reduction record of all companies that are ISO 50001/SEP in the world. The firm has also begun working with bioplastics and bio-identical polymers – conventional resins derived not from fossil material but from renewable feedstocks.

There’s no question Harbec is doing right by the environment, but the point, as far as Bob Bechtold is concerned, is that all these efforts are also good for the company profitability. For instance, energy use reduction saves Harbec a minimum of $85,000 each year, which goes directly to the bottom line. Assuming the company operates on a 5% to 10% margin, which Bechtold says is typical for his type of business, and “at 5%, that $85,000 is the equivalent of going out getting $1.7 million in new work, do all the work, and then have the 5% margin at the end.”

Choosing moulding machines wisely

Bechtold is a huge believer in using electrically driven injection moulding machines. He started out 20 years ago buying Milacron all-electric machines because they were one of the first companies to offer them. “At that time, everybody was arguing that there's no value in an electric machine because they cost 50% more and what do you get? They do the same job as hydraulic machines. But when you're aware of energy, you don't just look at sticker price, you also look at the cost of operation. Electric machines can do the same job with as much as 50% less energy, plus, the largest cause of heat in an injection moulding plant is waste heat from the hydraulic pumps, not from melting plastic. And so with that mentality, we were able to always justify the electric machines.”

More recently, as Harbec works toward its zero-waste goal, he’s been buying electric Arburg machines. “Many companies talk big,” Bechtold says, “but actually do very little in the way of measurable sustainability. Arburg is a major exception here – both in terms of production and products. I saw this myself at their Technology Days event in Lossburg a few years ago, and that’s why I like to buy Allrounders.

“We aren't a conventional commodity moulder,” he continues. “The majority of our business in high-end, precision components, so we have to have very robust, very accurate and very usable, user-friendly machines.” Every new purchase is also evaluated according to its expected energy consumption, he explains, and the savings are factored into the purchase price. Energy-efficient Arburg electric machines generate very little waste heat.

All but one of Harbec’s Arburg machines are electric Allrounder 370 E machines and the single hydraulic Allrounder 520S machine is used specifically because it has the clamping power for the injection-compression moulding of plano convex lenses made of optical-grade polycarbonate for medical market customers.

Thinking alike

The other thing that Bechtold says he likes about working with Arburg is that “they are practitioners of what we believe in, and there is no more powerful thing that I can do with my business dollars than put it into the people who I believe are real practitioners in the sustainability we’re committed to. The majority of the world, in my opinion, is just blowing smoke. They're putting together web pages and glossy booklets next to their corporate annual reports and all that, but it's all goals and good intentions when you read it.”

Arburg, on the other hand, published is first Sustainability Report in February 2021, providing a clear picture of corporate behaviour that is concerned both with environmental protection and the conservation of resources, as well as Arburg’s responsibility towards society, the region and its people. The 53-page report is modelled on the German state of Baden-Württemberg's "WIN Charter" sustainability management system, which contains twelve guiding principles that address, among other things, human and labour rights, employee well-being, resources, energy and emissions, product responsibility, and anti-corruption. It also provides guidelines for the data collection required to document the company’s efforts toward sustainability.

Bob Bechtold recalls attending Technology Days 2014 and the fact that he and Harbec colleagues were able to learn a lot about Arburg’s sustainability activities. “We spent 2 or 3 hours going over every aspect of Arburg’s programme and, when an Arburg delegation from Lossburg visited the United States a short time later, we reciprocated and shared the same kind of picture of our organization.”

Bechtold says he can still learn a lot from Arburg. “They’ve helped improve our ability as a production moulder, and I’ve come to understand that if I have a new requirement or I need a new facet of moulding, I'm going to check with Arburg first because I bet they're doing it or they have something in the works. As long as I've known Arburg, that's what I observed.”

“I need that kind of support,” he concludes.  “I need to work with companies who demonstrate the same kinds of values that I think are important, and I want to support those companies that demonstrate they care.”