The following excerpt has been composed for teaching purposes only and is not reflective, in all cases, of current operating trends in the metal finishing industry. In some cases, unorthodox and inconsistent technologies are incorporated because it best serves teaching purposes. The Wonderful World of Widgets is a trademark of FABL Environmental Regulatory Specialists, Inc., and the summary below, and all attachments thereto, is 1995-1999 copyrighted property of the same.
The Wonderful World of Widgets is a niche industry serving widget manufacturers nationwide since 1955. It receives cast steel widgets, and plates them with a proprietary zinc plating which lasts virtually the entire working life of the widgets, and protects the widget from rust much longer than conventional zinc plating. The Wonderful World of Widgets sells an average of 110,000 pounds of plated widgets each year. Because of the current growth in the demand for quality widgets, Wonderful World of Widgets is planning to expand its current capacity. The facility operates 24 hours a day, 52 weeks a year. A summary of plant operations follows.
Widgets arrive by truck (18 wheeler) and are unloaded by automated conveyor belts to the top of an enclosed silo. A conveyor at the base of the silo transfers the widgets across a quality assurance quality control check point along which they are manually loaded on a metal rack. Obviously, some scrap metal from the widgets results from rejected widgets. An automated line conveys the metal rack holding the widgets through cleaning, plating and rinsing operations. Then, the plated widget is checked in a final QA/QC process, which obviously produces some plated scrap metal from the widgets. Finally, plated widgets are packaged and sent back to the widget manufacturers.
The following excerpted information has been prepared for your use:
Recycling information for raw and plated widgets: