ICT - EDITOR’S LETTER
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here are two macro themes that I can identify by reading the articles included in this ICT issue, which is added to the ipcm® magazine twice a year to exploit the synergies and overlaps that exist between the coating sector and the cleaning and mechanical finishing ones. The first theme is the transition from the idea of machine to that of system. These two concepts are actually very different. A machine generally meets one production need, such as cleaning, deburring, or mass finishing, whereas a system (or workstation) is a solution combining several processes that are normally performed by more than one machine, thus guaranteeing lower investment and operating costs also thanks to the presence of single ancillary devices for an entire system (for instance, loading and unloading robots, filtration, separation, and collection systems, and so on). This issue of ICT presents various types of workstations for deburring and cleaning tasks. They guarantee two advantages: they give their users extreme flexibility and they simplify process management. This approach is also focussed on sustainability: a system has a smaller footprint on its production environment, it generates less waste water, waste, and scraps than a series of machines, and its energy consumption is reduced. The second theme is circular economy, an economic system conceived to reuse materials in subsequent production cycles in order to minimise waste. The linear ‘take-make-dispose’ model is based on the accessibility of large amounts of resources and energy and it is less and less suited to the reality in which we find ourselves operating. The circular economy model, on the other hand, is designed to self-regenerate: materials of biological origin are destined to be reintegrated into the biosphere, whereas the technological ones must be designed to be reused without entering the biosphere. Industrial cleaning technologies can play a fundamental role in the regeneration of materials and in their reintroduction into the economic cycle in another form. An example of this is the experimental project of an Italian company that cooperated with Italy’s National Research Council (CNR) to develop a method for cleaning abandoned fishing nets and turning them into a by-product suitable for use in other industrial sectors. This brings two benefits: the marine environment is cleaned from waste and waste becomes a resource. Again, this is a sustainable approach. In fact, sustainability does not just refer to producing less pollution/waste/impact on the environment with industrial processes, but also to giving longer service life to objects or new life to materials, thus precisely promoting a model of circular economy.
Francesco Stucchi Editor
international PAINT&COATING magazine - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 - N. 60
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