Hello All,

We're injection molding company and we study ISO 140001 to get certified in the future. Maybe, someone from participants of forume, works in this industry too.
Can you, please, help us with the questions below:

1. Аs you think: аre the emissions to the air (influence to the environment) and to the working area (influence to the machine operator) during injection molding process of parts from plastic (example PC, PA) are a significant environmental aspect? (We defined them as significant)

2. Could be the target as to decrease/control the emissions? What actions could be done with respect to this (e.g. installing some filters, etc.)?

3. Do you control/monitor the emissions by yourselves or invite external bodies/ companies to contol it (once per a time period)?

Thank you all beforehand

Only you can answer those questions based upon your defined criteria.....What's important to me or somebody else may or may not be important to you and it doesn't matter what anyone else has to say about it.

The organization shall...determine those aspects that have or can have significant impact....

And that's what it means.

This is a very good question. Not being familiar with your specific process, I will give general guidance.

Emissions to the air are from at least two possible sources:

1) The operation of the equipment itself: exhaust for example
2) Byproducts of the chemical reactions in the materials processing. Gas, vapor and/or solids released into the air while changing the properties of one or more materials. For example, I do not know what is in your plastics but will the heat of their being melted release a chemical that is inherent in the plastic like isocyanates? Will a new chemical be produced by heating the plastic? What form would it take? (usually gas or vapor)

Once these are understood, the mechanics of the process need to be understood so you can plan controls.

1) An exhaust pipe and/or manifold
2) Vents, crevices, releases when the mold is opened

There are mechanical and administrative ways to address emissions controls.

1) Changing the type of fuel, plastic material or something else that affects the emission; filtering the exhaust, gas or vapor, etc.
2) Running the process in a different time frame, for example if the heat of the day impacts emissions or their effect on the atmosphere. For example, you might make a study and decide that VOC emissions do not need to be burned off during the winter because ozone is more affected by VOCs in hot weather.

Influence to the machine operator is a safety control, not so much an environmental control, and limits are set by understanding allowable exposure limits to whatever chemical or stressor you are dealing with.

Targets are set based on your organization's expectations, and requirements of people who have control over you: laws, regulations, codes and/or guidelines.

If you have the right equipment and expertise to self monitor AND are allowed to do that by law/code/regulations, then you can self monitor. You can also hire someone like an engineering firm to monitor for you.

I hope this helps!

Hi

I used to be associated with our Injection Moulding shopfloor long ago when we introduced ISO-14001 system there.

The emissions that you are mentioning are "fugitive" emissions (i.e. they are not emissions through chimney or stack etc.), arising out of degradation of polymers during the injection moulding process. These emissions are significant with respect to the Health of the operators working on the injection moulding machines and others who are likely to be exposed to them. For example if you are moulding a polyacetal (e.g. delrin), there is a possibility of formaldehyde emission during the injection moulding process. That requires measurement of formaldehyde concentration in the work place and to control it (by, say, proper ventilation) to less than the TLV levels.

Considering the quantity of these emissions I would not consider them as environmetally significant; of course the criteria which you use in your system for defining "significance" will determine whether these emissions are significant in your system. I am sure your criteria for significance includes the nature, quantity and concentration of the emissions involved as well as their impacts immediately and on the long term on the physical environment.

With kind regards,

Ramakrishnan

I am with an injection molding company that has been ISO14001 certified since 2003 and we list process fumes as a aspect but not a significant aspect.

We mold a lot of polyacetal and the formaldehyde is emitted only when the material has been overheated. Most people would leave the molding machine area well before the TLV level is reached because the fumes are much like tear gas.

In the late 70s there was a cancer concern about vinyl choride monomer being released from our molding polyvinyl chloride. We called in our insurance company and they put a monomer detector on an operator for 8 hours with no measurable result.

These comments relate more to employee safety than environment but they were part of the basis on which we decided machine fumes were not enviromentally significant.

On the other hand we regard our machine purgings as significant and weigh them before disposal to try to reduce environmental impact. We chart the results monthly and have a program to reduce purging waste.

I am with an injection molding company that has been ISO14001 certified since 2003 and we list process fumes as a aspect but not a significant aspect.

We mold a lot of polyacetal and the formaldehyde is emitted only when the material has been overheated. Most people would leave the molding machine area well before the TLV level is reached because the fumes are much like tear gas. What about a fire emergency? If formaldehyde is emitted, when material is overheated, I assume it would also be released when exposed to fire. Annex A of ISO 14001 suggests that foreseeable emergency conditions should be considered, when determining significance.

Bhopal is a clear reminder.

In our case I would point out to any auditor our fire suppression system makes such an emergency unlikely.

In our case I would point out to any auditor our fire suppression system makes such an emergency unlikely.Do you store the product in bulk, outside of your building? Or in a location not covered by your fire supression system?

Not at all. Everything is covered by fire suppression and if a fire broke out in our warehouse I would worry more about drowning when the system starts functioning. Yes we also have storm drain covers if that did happen.