I/N Tek
I/N Tek and I/N Kote supply high-quality steel sheet to major automotive manufacturers in North America. To ensure customer satisfaction, the facility continues to develop and supply higher quality products with greater consistency while meeting the mission to protect and improve the environment. The facility is a founding member of the Indiana Partners for Pollution Prevention.
Reducing energy use
In the final stage of the annealing process, the continuous strip of steel is cooled as it passes through a spray tower and quench tank. In the past, some of the heat was captured through a heat exchanger, but the remainder was lost. Now an additional heat exchanger recovers much of the wasted energy that, in turn, is used to heat rinse water. The project provides approximately $130,000 in savings annually. In the next phase, the previously wasted energy will also heat rinse water in the upstream cleaning section, resulting in an additional $170,000 annual savings.
Improving performance
Another project improved the performance of the cleaning section ahead of the continuous annealing furnace. The improvements have reduced requirements for fresh water make-up and therefore less plant steam is needed to heat the water. Annual savings for this project is expected to be more than $100,000. That amount will increase as the process is optimized.
Taken together, these projects will reduce the plant's natural gas consumption by about 2.5 percent.