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GEIGER BRICKEL BENEFITS FROM LOW -VOC COATINGS
Citation:
Marshall, A. M. AND J. L. Fields. GEIGER BRICKEL BENEFITS FROM LOW -VOC COATINGS. FURNITURE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING, 122-125, (2000).
Description:
Midwest Research Institute, under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), conducted a study to identify wood furniture manufacturing facilities that had converted to low-volatile organic compound (VOC)/hazardous air pollutant (HAP) wood furniture coatings and to develop case studies for those facilities. Geiger Brickel's conversion to ultraviolet (UV)-curable and waterbome coatings at two of its plants was one of the subjects.
Geiger Brickel, a producer of high-end wood office furniture, introduced UV-curable and waterborne coatings to two Atlanta (GA)-based plants: the Fulton facility and the Assembly to Order (ATO) facility. The Fulton facility began operation in 1978, has about 290 employees, and produces about $40 million worth of furniture per year. The ATO facility was completed in May 1999, has approximately 78 employees, and will produce about $40 million worth of furniture per year at full production. Most of the finishing operations in the Fulton facility are manual, while only automated spray and roll coating equipment is used at the ATO facility.
The switch to low-VOC coatings at Geiger was prompted by a desire for a high-quality, more environmentally friendly coating. The company received a grant from the EPA to investigate a waterborne urethane topcoat, which was first used in 1996. Geiger installed a roll coating line at the Fulton facility in 1998 to apply UV-cured topcoat to certain types of flat components.