Having cut the fuel consumption of its vehicles over the past few decades, Volvo Trucks is now improving the environmental footprint of its facilities.
With reduced energy and paint use and lower emissions of solvents, its northern Swedish paintshop is the most environmentally sustainable unit of its kind in the world. Even so it can offer customers more than 850 colours to choose between.

You need about 20 litres of paint for a single truck cab, and each cab must then be baked in an oven to harden the finish. Multiply this process by tens of thousands of vehicles each year – not to mention the heating and cooling needed for other parts of the paintshop – and it becomes clear that such a facility could potentially have a huge impact on the environment in terms of materials and energy.
But with heat from trash, cooling from nature and paint consumption nearly halved, Volvo Trucks’ paintshop in Umeå, northern Sweden, has become a shining example of how smart thinking can shrink the environmental footprint of a major industrial facility.

Emissions down, investments up
For many years now, staff at Volvo Trucks’ paintshop have been focusing on reducing the emission of solvents into the air and improving energy efficiency. Every stage of the painting process has been mapped, right down to the smallest detail. Everyone has been encouraged to come up with suggestions and ideas, and major investments have been made. The results are impressive. Between 1999 and 2008, energy consumption was reduced by 30 per cent. This success is even more remarkable in view of the fact that the amount of painting being undertaken has increased significantly during the same period, partly because of the fact that plastic components that were previously painted in Belgium are now painted in the Umeå paintshop.
“When components are not painted in the same place, it’s incredibly difficult to make sure they are the same shade as the rest of the cab. That’s why we chose to bring them here,” explains Hans Venngren, Volvo Trucks’ global process manager for surface treatment.
Energy savings have been achieved by re-using the air in the spray booths and at the plant. The air in the plant is used as incoming air in the painting process, while around 75 per cent of the air in the spray booths is re-used. As a result, the need for air brought in from outside has been dramatically reduced.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE