Big—and Small—Parts Are Manufactured With a Little Carbon Footprint

VeriForm’s 90+ energy efficiency initiatives make the custom fabricating shop sustainable and much more profitable

Paul Rak, president of VeriForm

Paul Rak, president of VeriForm, pauses in his shop by columns being fabricated for a city center installation.

“Spending money on fuels creates zero jobs for my business. But spending those dollars on wage increases, benefits, or better technologies creates a healthier business and healthier sales.”

Paul Rak, president and manufacturing sustainability champion at Veri- Form Inc., a custom fabricating shop in Cambridge, Ont., has nearly tripled the company’s product output per kilowatt consumed since he opened the doors in 1996.

His energy-savings obsession began in 2006 with the desire to expand business coupled with a commitment to preserve natural resources and bequeath a cleaner environment to his daughter, Emily, born that year.

Keeping up and Reducing

As the company approaches its 20th anniversary, the part mix has changed, the customer base has expanded, specifications have become tighter, the company’s design capabilities have increased, and certifications have been achieved. Orders from customers other than trailer and hoist manufacturers have become smaller and more frequent. And Rak established sister company VeriCUT to manufacture Crossflow™ downdraft systems—expandable cutting tables for laser, plasma, and oxyacetylene workflows.

What hasn’t altered is Rak’s dedication to continually reducing the plant’s carbon footprint. “In 2013 we were Canada’s fourth company to achieve ISO 50001, an energy management system standard certification that requires cutting energy usage year-over- year. The reductions have made us more competitive as well as sustainable. With our efforts we have cut our emissions by 70 percent despite expanding our building and sales. Now, consider if every company in the world cut their carbon emissions by 70 percent as well without reducing sales or production. It would re- duce greenhouse gas emissions, and there would be more money to spend on things that increase productivity and profits. And our world would be much further ahead in solving climate change.

“We’ve doubled our profits. Had we not taken sustainability seriously, VeriForm would have been out of business during the last few hard economic years.”

Right now the company is working on its 91st energy building retrofit. “Every time I think we cannot possibly find one more thing to make more efficient or to cut energy costs, our team comes up with another idea that really translates to year-over-year savings. Until you have performed sustainability projects in your own company, you cannot envision the benefits and positive results,” Rak said.

“Being more green helps us retain staff and create a more positive work culture. These, along with our profit margins, are really measurable. In fact, the last five years have been the best years in our company history in terms of employee turnover.”

Expanding Capabilities and Partnerships

About 90 percent of VeriForm’s work is fabricating—cutting, bending, drilling, welding, and finishing—with cutting and bending comprising nearly half of the jobs. “In bending we commit to tolerances of about ±0.030 in. If the plate is ½ in. or 1 in. thick and 20 ft. long, we ask for ±0.125 in. as 20-ft. parts can have some camber or twist,” Rak added

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The other 10 percent of work is machining. “We found we were contracting considerable amounts of machining and losing control of turnaround and quality so we purchased a 20-ft.-long machining center for parts up to 2 ft. wide.”

About 90 percent of the parts are produced from high-strength steel that is ordered by the company and delivered JIT. On occasion a customer supplies more exotic materials like titanium or copper. Some customer parts are stocked to be available for immediate delivery.

Kevin Saunders

Kevin Saunders cuts an access hole in 54-ft.-high, 16-in.- diameter columns. All welds were magnetic particle tested to ensure the columns were built to specification.

VeriForm produces a variety of parts, from those that are 2 in. thick and may require a 21-ft. press brake to parts that fit in the palm of your hand, and every size in between. Custom parts flow from the 26,000-sq.-ft. facility to almost any industry that uses metal parts, including mining, forestry, machine building, nuclear, energy, sports equipment, and medical furnishing. Capital projects like architectural work and sound barriers, which Rak sees increasing, currently contribute about 30 percent of the work.

“We are getting more public works projects as the percentage of available sales from work for other manufacturers is dwindling. Our product base has been eaten away by an industry that has gone overseas, and we face lower margins because there is more competition for less work,” he said. “We love the public works projects, but they require more front-end resources, whereas repeat parts for a machine builder require very little front-end support.”

Front-end support takes the shape of SolidWorks® and experienced personnel. “Solid modeling has really ramped up our sales effectiveness. We can turn around parts 10 times faster by eliminating the engineering bottleneck, and we catch issues before they appear on the floor. Our staff has experience both in CAD and on the shop floor, so they know how to eliminate production and material limitations.

“In addition, we work side by side with our customers as partners. We tackle the jobs together to the point that the customer and vendor lines become blurred. For example, a medical furniture client may not have a good understanding of part deflection or springback during bending. Just because their designer drew a 2.12- in. radius does not make it the most cost-effective radius to use to produce parts over a weekend for Monday’s delivery. We help them figure out the radius and tooling combination to make the parts work without unnecessary costs and production delays.”

Clearing the Air

VeriCUT’s Crossflow cutting tables, manufactured at VeriForm, help other manufacturers become more efficient when cutting sheet metal and plate. The tables use 66 percent smaller dust collectors to achieve nearly 99 percent smoke removal. The number of installations across Canada and in Florida and Minnesota is rapidly growing.

The mechanical, high-efficiency smoke and dust removal tables use a zone approach that provides localized smoke removal. The dust collection system draws smoke only from the area of cutting rather than from across the entire table width or length. Rak explained, “Our 100 percent downdraft tables draw smoke from as much as 24 in. above the cutting surface and at up to 48-in. distances along the table length. They are 100 percent mechanical, meaning they have no motors, PLCs, pneumatics, or other powered devices. The benefit of being mechanical is that the tables have practically zero parts that need replacing or will jam up during production. And they are efficient as a result of the zoning. Dust collectors and energy requirements are therefore reduced tremendously, and those monies can be reinvested elsewhere in the company.”

The first VeriCUT system was designed and built for Rak's own shop. Finding and Stopping Waste Rak’s first energy savings initiative encompassed a series of changes to improve energy efficiency led by updating the lighting system. Wasted energy was the general focus.

“In typical industrial and commercial settings, lighting accounts for 30 percent of electrical costs,” he said. “My electrician recommended changing to T5 lighting to reduce electrical consumption by 50 percent. I cut the lighting expenses in half just by changing the light fixtures. The change paid for itself in less than a year.”

The ease and quick ROI encouraged Rak to look for other ways to slow the ticking of the electrical meter.

“On every bill an industrial customer sees the words ‘power factor,’ a measurement that is related to your average motor efficiency. If some of your motors are inefficient, this could result in a power factor level under 90 percent, and utilities charge a penalty for this in most provinces and states. When we started down the power savings path, our power factor was in the high 60s, low 70s, so every month we were paying a penalty.”

Welder Dan Pullen works on a mining weldment base

Welder Dan Pullen works on a mining weldment base. VeriForm welder-fitters are certified to CWB Level 2 standards, which allows them to manage and build structural parts.

VeriForm’s penalty soon became a thing of the past. Capacitors installed at the machines saved enough energy to raise the power factor to almost 100 (1.0). The monthly kilowatt-hours were reduced dramatically after the first two stages of installation. “As we installed a few at first, and then a few more, we saw successful numbers on our power factor readings.”

Another area of substantial savings was found on the dock. Several individually controlled, nonprogrammable thermostats kept workers warm but kept running after everyone had left for the day—or even the weekend. Converting to one central, programmable thermostat brought the heating bill under control.

“We did one more thing,” Rak said. “We installed heating disconnects, or limit switches, on the bay doors. So basically when the door goes up, the heat turns off in the whole shop. It sounds draconian, but what I found was that when the bay doors were opened—even in the middle of winter— they were left open for hours. The staff wouldn’t chase the shipper since the infrared heaters kept them warm despite the heat loss.

“With the addition of the disconnects and the central thermostat, we saved 91 percent on our heating costs. The thermostat cost us $1,200 and we saved $14,000 in one year. Disconnects for the doors were roughly the same cost, and related savings were about $8,000. It was the best, cheapest, fastest payback project we ever did.”

Involving Human Factors

Some savings initiatives were purely human-based. One of Rak’s pet peeves was finding paper towels on the floor of the bathrooms.

“I said, what’s better for the environment— paper towels or hand dryers? And, what’s better for our bottom line? My research showed that the impact of paper towels on the environment was nine times that of hand dryers. Paper towels have to be made, purchased, and shipped. They have to be received, dispensed, and disposed of. So we put in hand dryers.

“It was a small project but it solvea human problem. We spent $2,000 to buy and install dryers and saved $2,900 in paper and disposal each year. That’s less than a one-year payback, plus we eliminated the unsightly paper waste on the washroom floors.

“Metal fabricating and welding can be a much more efficient and profitable business if we consider reducing energy use instead of assuming that we have no control over how much power is used.”

Rak’s initial sustainability goal was to reduce the company’s carbon footprint to zero by 2016. He’s getting very close.

Planning a Successful Future

Rak feels good about his company’s future, although he admits that there will be challenges that require capital, wise planning, and great internal resources.

Mining truck shrouds are painted by John Gomes

Mining truck shrouds are painted by John Gomes. Paint booth efficiency was increased by a passive return air system installed in the fall of 2014 that also improved facility airflow, cut heating losses, and reduced drafts in the offices.

“We have partnered with a superb SEO [search engine optimization] partner who is finding business for us in South America as well as expanding our business in North America. And we are developing more of our own products as well as products in partnership with our customers, which is yielding measurable sales in Canada and the U.S.”

VeriForm’s engineering capabilities also continue to bring in new business. “Our technical staff is quite large compared to similar businesses and very knowledgeable. For example, we are very involved in building architectural weldments that require artistry and design.

“We respect budgets and balance our services to meet those budgets, ensure that projects are done on time, and meet the specified load requirements. This may sound obvious, but when you are suspending an 11,000- lb. stainless steel canopy on a downtown city square, you need to know that it will withstand wind loads and maintain its stainless shine.”

Future employees are also on Rak’s mind. “As funny as it sounds, most men and women would laugh at the thought of being in a social scenario and introducing themselves to a potential date as a welder, fitter, or press brake operator. Stars in movies and television shows are white-collar workers.

“Our society places little value on our children taking on manufacturing jobs. We need to support our colleges and our manufacturing and stop being enamored by the sectors which create a minority of our employment.”

www.veriform.ca