Carbon Footprint Reduction During the Wire Drawing Process at an Electrical Cable Manufacturing Company

Abstract

This study proposes improvements in one of the processes of the operational flow of an electric cable manufacturing company with the objective of reducing the environmental impact of its emissions. The improvement focuses on the copper annealing sub-process, in relation to the wire drawing operation. Under an experimental design, a diagnosis was made of the 2.5 mm diameter wire production process. It was found that it generated unnecessary waste of electrical energy in the annealing stage. With the help of a group of experts, the carbon footprint indicator was also calculated. The solution implemented consisted of the partial elimination of the primary drawing annealing operation and recurring adjustments for the efficient operation of the rest of the process. The benefit of the proposal, validated through laboratory tests, was calculated at USD 2.81 per year for each dollar invested. The results show that the wires only changed in their mechanical properties, having mainly an elongation of 35%-36% for the soft wire and 2% for the hard wire. However, the change in these mechanical properties does not chemically affect the quality of the final product thanks to the adjustments made, reducing the carbon footprint by 1444,186 tCO2 per year. This proposal could be replicated in similar companies in the metallurgical sector.