Centurion Battery: 'our production process can be more sustainable'
'We manufacture and sell our batteries ourselves. We also have our own development department in which we focus entirely on improving our products. Here we develop new techniques and materials for batteries.'
Harm Bruggink, director of Centurion Battery B.V.
LIOF and Centurion Battery
Time to make its own production process more sustainable in an innovative way! And Centurion called in LIOF for this purpose. It received support for this project from LIOF with an Innovation Project from LimburgToekomstBestendig.
A project of:
About Centurion Batterij
Centurion Battery knows everything there is to know about batteries. This company has been producing batteries in its own factory in Roermond for almost 90 years. Batteries for every vehicle you can think of. From cars to trucks and buses. From campers and caravans to boats and trailers. And from batteries for agriculture to batteries for solar panels. And even better: it does so as sustainably as possible. And then, of course, you're never too old to learn.
'We've been embracing sustainability for years'
Centurion Battery is the only producer of lead-acid batteries in the Benelux countries. Over the past 90 years, the company has acquired an enormous amount of knowledge and patents for the production of starter and (semi)traction batteries. It does this on the basis of lead acid technology. Centurion is aware of its impact on the environment. The company has therefore embraced sustainability for years.
Harm: "Our battery has a long lifespan and is 98% recyclable. All the batteries we sell are produced in our own factory in Roermond. During this process we use cast gratings, a robust construction and high-quality materials. This allows us to guarantee a very high reliability of our batteries."
'With an innovative casting machine, Centurion opens the door
to further improvements in the production process'
"How can we improve our production process?
Centurion considers it important to ensure a sustainable life cycle of the batteries. But the production of the batteries must also be as sustainable as possible. To this end, Centurion continues to actively improve its production process. "Because there is always room for improvement," Harm realizes well.
"Especially our current production process of the lead grid plates can be improved. We now have 11 casting machines for this purpose. That is necessary to keep 6 to 7 of them operational at all times. But these machines have some considerable disadvantages," Harm adds. "The process is gas-driven and currently not economical enough: that means a lot of energy loss. In addition, parts of the metal mixing oxidize with the oxygen present. This creates 'metal slag' or stony waste when metals are melted."
LIOF also helps with innovative sustainability
Martine Rousseau, at LIOF: "LIOF is known for supporting starting entrepreneurs. But we don't just do that. We find it enormously important and valuable that LIOF can also help in making an own, existing production process more sustainable in an innovative way."
'1 machine will soon be able to make 8,000 to 9,000 lead gratings per day.
Now there are 3,000 to 4,000 per day.'
Martine emphasizes, "So an application for support does not always have to be for an innovative product or service. It can also be for an improvement of an existing product or production process. In this case, as much as 90 years!"
Win-win-win-win!
And of course Centurion is very happy about that. With LIOF's support, it is developing a new method of producing lead grids. Harm: "With the new production process, the lead grids will have a higher quality, there will be less lead waste, machine downtime will be shorter and we will save energy." And that brings Centurion considerable profit. Both in terms of sustainability and sales.
Are you an entrepreneur working on innovative sustainability in your company? If so, LIOF may be able to help.
The numbers don't lie
Is the process successful? Then Centurion can replace all its casting machines for new ones. Harm: "We will then only need 5 operational machines, instead of the 6 to 7 machines at the moment. And these machines work considerably more energy-friendly and efficient."
No gas, but power
Will the new casting machine replace all the current casting machines in the plant? If so, this will make a huge difference in the plant's energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The new machines no longer use gas, but of course more electricity. Here too Centurion is already thinking about this: "For this we want to generate a large part on our own site in a renewable way. But before that happens, this innovation will already save €61,000 a year in costs at our plant."
3 times as much in 5 years
In addition, Centurion expects to be able to sell significantly more batteries as a result of these developments. Harm: "We expect sales to double after 3 years and triple after 5 years." With this project alone, it thus sees sales increasing by €15 million in 3 years.
For more info go to centurionbattery.nl
This testimonial is from October 2022.
Photography Ron Wiersma.
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