‘Time running for waste water funding’
30th July 2019

Glass processors have been warned they may have only months to ‘tap’ into EU-funded grants to improve their waste water management before the funding ends.

Glass consumables, machinery and hardware provider Bohle warns this could mean they miss out on access to grants of up to 50% of the purchase cost of coolant and cleaning management.

Managing director Dave Broxton said: “EU grants of up to 50% of purchase costs are currently available to fund improvements to manufacturing processes, which deliver efficiencies, and which reduce waste, including waste water.

“With the high levels of usage of water as coolant in glass processing there is a major opportunity to improve product quality, lower your operating costs, while also reducing your environmental impact by improving the way that you manage coolant.”

According to Bohle, clean water, especially with added coolant increases the performance of machinery by up to 20 per cent and the service life of tools by up to 30 per cent - but it can all too easily become contaminated with particles from drilling, polishing and grinding. This carries a potentially far higher price tag in lost man hours, falling product quality, in addition to reduced service life of equipment.

Combined with improved product quality and increased service life as well as trimming around 10 per cent off the costs of water disposal, he said sedimentors can pay back against purchase costs in as little as a year but with grant funding, that could be reduced to six months.

Under the EU funding scheme, businesses can apply for a 50% contribution towards projects with a maximum capital cost of £25,000 (maximum £12,500 grant). This is accessed through the Growth Hub network and Local Enterprise Partnerships.

www.bohle.com