Green Manufacturer

NCR receives LEED
certification for Columbus
manufacturing plant

NCR Corp., Duluth, Ga., has been awarded LEED® certification for speed and innovation in delivering a number of green design and construction features in its Columbus, Ga., manufacturing plant.

The facility is one of the first LEED-certified, retrofitted manufacturing plants in the U.S. The company revamped the 25-year-old former battery manufacturing plant over a five-month period in 2009 and now uses it to produce ATMs, retail self-checkout machines, and DVD rental kiosks for the North American market.

The company reused more than 70 percent of the interior building elements such as doors, walls, and ceilings. Ninety-four percent of the construction waste was diverted from landfills, with more than 500 tons of construction waste recycled or reused.

NCR was able to reduce its power usage by more than 40 percent by re-roofing the building, where 95 percent of the surface has a Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) of 84 or more; replacing the existing lighting with more efficient fixtures; and replacing 78 percent of equipment with EPA ENERGY STAR®- rated technology.

An on-site pond has eliminated the use of potable water for irrigation of the site’s landscaping, reducing the plant’s water usage by more than 40 percent. Bathroom facilities and showers also were retrofitted or replaced.

The company created priority parking spaces reserved for low-emission and fuel-efficient vehicles, including car-pools. Twenty-two secure bicycle storage spaces encourage employees to ride their bikes to work.

More than 40 percent of the building materials, including glass, paint, ceiling tiles, and carpet, were purchased from local manufacturers within a 500-mile region.

Armor Contract Mfg., Mason, Ohio, has installed what it says is one of the Midwest’s largest full-service blast, primer, and paint systems. Designed with product and application flexibility in mind, the 3,100-sq.-ft. paint system is fully interlinked with a monorail system to ensure a good finish and speed of application.

Surfaces are prepared in the 1,100- sq.-ft. shotblast booth or the on-site steam-cleaning system to ensure optimal paint performance. Also linked with the monorail system, the preparation booths can accommodate a variety of large metal products. Painting and blasting can be done on single units or full production runs.

The company’s existing finish paint booth ( 30 ft. wide by 20 ft. long by 10

ft. high) now is complemented with the new topcoat booth ( 23 ft. wide by 30 ft. long by 14 ft. high), primer booth ( 23 ft. wide by 30 ft. long by 14 ft. high), shotblast booth ( 26 ft. wide by 44 ft. long by 14 ft. high), and steam-cleaning booth ( 24 ft. wide by 36 ft. long by 14 ft. high).

In addition to topcoat and primer systems built to apply any low-VOC wet coatings, the system also can apply chemical agent resistant coatings (CARC), which are available in standard colors and meet MIL-DTL-53072 and TTC-490 specifications.

The company says its coating operations maintain environmentally friendly standards. All of the equipment is EPA-certified and meets or exceeds state and federal regulations.