Closed System Paint Shop in Focus at International Environment Conference in Sweden
Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE)´s production facility in Mjölby is one of the main points of interest at the 18th Greening of Industry Network Conference: GIN2012
Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE) is strongly committed to supporting the growth of its customers´ business, while maintaining safe and healthy workplaces and protecting the environment. The Mjölby factory is one of the largest warehouse truck manufacturing facilities in the world with 76,000 m2 of factory space and produces around 55,000 powered trucks as well as 70,000 hand pallet trucks per year.

GIN 2012 is being held in the neighbouring city of Linköping on 22nd -24th October 2012, in a region that is known for its "Triple Helix" initiatives (i.e. co-operations between industry, government and knowledge institutes). TMHE will host a workshop featuring its eco-efficient paint shop project, which is a good example of Triple Helix. Project partners are also invited, with the aim of inspiring participants to create similar synergies through collaborative projects. The workshop will give participants the opportunity to explore the project and reflect on how Toyota´s experience could be applied to other businesses across the world. With its eco-efficient painting facility (5,000 m2) up and running for the past few years, TMHE  focuses on gaining maximised productivity with minimised environmental impact.

“Toyota Material Handling Europe is committed to sustainable manufacturing of high-quality materials handling products. We see the values of close partnerships with suppliers, universities as well as authorities. This collaboration creates opportunities to reach our goal, and our joint efforts continue. We look forward to open discussions during our jam-session and for new ideas for future improvements”, says Anders Claesson, Vice President Warehouse Supply, Toyota Material Handling Europe.

Toyota´s closed system paint shop in Mjölby:
 
- The process water in the pre-treatment lines is heated using district heating and water is recycled.
- No paint with organic solvents is used. Instead, powder coating paint is used. Almost 90% of the paint is recycled.
- Continued focus on energy efficiency.
Kaizen (continuous improvement) activities continue and a potential calculated decrease of 300 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission per year is estimated in the paint shop.