WHEAT RIDGE, CO – “If it is our goal to safeguard an environmentally stable future, then it is imperative that we take a close look at remanufacturing equipment with the intent of returning it into service, keeping it in the system rather than throwing it away,” said Michael Thurston, Ph.D., Technical Director, Golisano Institute for Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and technical leader for the Remanufacturing & Reuse arm of the REMADE Institute, in his keynote speech, Remanufacturing Development in the USA, at the Professional Electrical Apparatus Reconditioning League’s (PEARL), 21st Annual Conference and Exhibition, held in Greenville, SC, April 13-15.
Thurston noted in his presentation that The REMADE Institute is a national coalition of leading universities, companies, trade associations and national labs, focused on reducing the material and energy footprint of U.S. manufacturing. Thurston cited REMADE’s recently released Technology Roadmap, which includes a focus on best practices in remanufacturing equipment of all types including electrical apparatus. The key to REMADE’s Technology Roadmap is that through the development and integration of advanced remanufacturing technologies, there are multiple opportunities for reuse and end-of-life products and components and materials, improving material and energy efficiency as well as cost effectiveness.
“For PEARL, the REMADE Technology Roadmap is significant,” said PEARL president Howard Herndon. “It closely aligns with PEARL’s mission of the past 20 years and to be supported by research developed by such an esteemed and scholarly institute affirms our organization’s ongoing work.”
While it is technologically complicated to recondition equipment that is to be reintroduced into the infrastructure, it is companies such as members of PEARL that are leading the way to ensure electrical equipment brought back into service is safe and reliable. Herndon emphasized the importance of three key elements in the REMADE Technology Roadmap that Thurston identified in his presentation to ensure that reconditioning processes are clearly defined and accurate: Training and workforce development focused on cleaning, repair and condition assessment is an essential step in the remanufacturing/reconditioning process; Cost effective cleaning of electronics is integral to the safe operation of reconditioned equipment; Assessment of operational and energy efficiency of remanufacturing processes will lead to the installation of reliable equipment.
“One of the benefits of being a PEARL member is finding additional resources that can lead to best practices when reconditioning electrical equipment,” said Herndon. “Providing information about and using the REMADE Institute’s Technology Roadmap is in keeping with our mission to help our members focus on what’s most important: reintroducing reconditioned electrical equipment into our infrastructure that is safe and reliable.”
For more information on PEARL and the reconditioning industry, visit pearl1.org.
