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Volatile Organic Material
The majority of volatile organic material (VOM) emissions result from our manufacturing lines where we use organic solvent-based fluids to clean the stencils used in our screen printing operations, and when soldering electronic components onto circuit boards. We have significantly reduced our VOM emissions over the years by changing our processes and introducing substitutes.
VOM figures are based on actual reported data as we capture the vast majority of these emissions through our data collection systems.
Performance
In 2010, Motorola Mobility emitted 16 metric tonnes of VOM compared with 33 metric tonnes in 2005.
We have reduced our VOM emissions by 64 percent since 2007 by changing cleaning and soldering processes at our Taiwanese site, which was responsible for the majority of emissions.
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Cutting VOMs in Taiwan
The employees at our Taiwanese manufacturing site have achieved dramatic reductions in VOM emissions.
In 2006, the site was responsible for more than two-thirds of our global VOM emissions. But the team’s determination to find a solution has cut the site’s emissions by 84 percent.
The project team brought together specialists from process and industrial engineering, quality and EHS. They began by replacing the detergent used for all cleaning processes, saving 18 tonnes each year of the previous 58 tonnes of VOM. Analyzing the soldering processes, the next step was to try a water-based flux, but this affected the quality of the product. A process known as “pin in paste” could eliminate wave soldering but this was too expensive – increasing costs by more than $10 million per year.
Undeterred, the team returned to the original idea of water-based flux and applied new engineering techniques to overcome the original quality issues. Their persistence brought huge results, slashing VOM emissions to just 9 tonnes per year.
In April 2010, the site was awarded a Green Manufacturing Process Performance Award by the local government for its efforts to reduce VOC emissions and its use of lead-free soldering processes.