Throughout the past five years, K&L Microwave, a subsidiary of Dover Corp., has made numerous investments of more than $3 million to refurbish its 21 year-old plating facility in Salisbury, MD. The goal was to increase efficiency, streamline processes and reduce waste. The end result is a cleaner, safer and more productive work environment that has benefited employees, the greater community and its customers.

In fact, a complete overhaul of its plating facility was prompted by the demands for its products both in the military and commercial sectors. After a rigorous six-month internal review, K&L made a strategic decision to outsource all high-volume production and to invest in in-house plating capacity to support quick turnaround for custom sampling and production.

While the new state-of-the-art facility in Salisbury ensures that its processes are as efficient and technologically advanced as possible to support strong product innovation, fast sampling and production startups, it has given the supplier an opportunity to address an area of critical importance to the company and its employees, the environment.

In addition, the company has also adopted an environmental management system (EMS) that is ISO 14001-certified. ISO 14001 is the voluntary international standard for environmental auditing, performance evaluation, labeling and life-cycle assessment.

Toward that goal, K&L has reduced electrical power usage by installing new technologically advanced machines and energy efficient equipment, with continuing reductions in electricity expected. It is well known that a major source of air pollution in the United States is the result of power plants generating electricity. K&L’s reduction in electricity usage serves the environment as well as reduces costs. Plus, it has made concerted efforts to reduce material waste and to phase out materials deemed harmful to the environment. Finally, the new plating facility includes a closed-loop water treatment system that has reduced discharge from 30,000 gallons/day to zero discharge.

Another significant change is the increase in the number of operating dip tanks in the plating facility, which has significantly increased production output. K&L has also invested in improving air quality in the refurbished facility. A new exhaust system was specially designed for each tank to pull noxious vapor from hot liquid metals. New makeup air and exhaust systems are balanced and adjustable, allowing the heating and air conditioning to be at desired capacity for the comfort of the employees.