912,000
PLANTED TREES
IT COVERS AN
AREA OF
190
HECTARES,
ORIGINAL
SOLUTIONS
THE NEW FURNACE HAS
IMPROVED ERGONOMICS IN
THE FOUNDRY
WHICH
EQUALS
290
ONE DECIDUOUS
TREE PRODUCES
365
FOOTBALL
FIELDS
LITRES OF OXYGEN
PER YEAR
WHICH IS
620.5
ONE
HECTARE OF FOREST
ANNUALLY TURNS
KILOGRAMMES
15
TONNES OF CO2 INTO
OXYGEN
Source: ŠKODA AUTO
and National Museum
of Agriculture
I
n the PKG/1 – Foundry department, the
alloy is prepared in shaft-melting furnaces. Here, they melt aluminium ingots
and returnable material from the technological flow of the Foundry, as well
as non-conforming parts of the cylinder
blocks produced mainly during the production start-up on the casting machines, i.e. at the time when the parameters
of the entire process are configured. The
semi-finished blocks comprise casted-in
cast iron cylinder liners, which must be
removed from the melt before it can be
reused. They are separated manually by
the furnace operators, who use “digging
tools” to pull the liners out of the melting
chamber. It is physically strenuous work,
and, in terms of ergonomics, shaft furnaces are not ideal for this activity.
Since October this year, a new low-capacity melting furnace used to process
cylinder blocks has been in operation at
the Foundry. It is a special unit with a suitable technical solution that has helped
to improve ergonomic conditions by reducing the physical load on the furnace
operators. The furnace is equipped with a
mechanism that allows for double tilting
of the entire unit. The first position facilitates the pulling of the cylinder liners out
of the melting chamber (see photo above), and the second position is used to
pour the alloy into the transfer pan (see
photo below). RED
RETURNING
LUNGS TO NATURE
AFTER 13 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, ‘ONE TREE
PLANTED FOR EVERY CAR SOLD’ PROGRAMME
CLOSES IN ON 1 MILLION
A
t the time when the bark
beetle is ravaging Czech forests, the carmaker has managed to return greenery to nature in more than 50 places a year. The
ŠKODA Trees grant programme,
which was established in 2007, will
exceed 912,000 planted trees by
the end of December. Its success
can also be ascribed to the fact that
this year alone, 54 entities (mainly
from the Central Bohemia and Hradec Králové regions) requested contributions. However, the seedlings
were not only headed to the vicinity of ŠKODA AUTO plants. Among
the most important was aid to the oldest Czech national park, KRNAP, as
well as other regions, such as South
Moravia and the Šumava Protected
Area. Thanks to the grants, historic
alleys of trees and windbreaks are returning to the landscape; landfills, public areas and industrial environments
are reforested; and greenery is being
restored post-disaster. The fact that
it is one of the carmaker’s main socially responsible activities satisfies a
large number of employees who are
actively involved in planting, even in
their spare time. In addition, their family members, secondary vocational
school students, dealers and customers are also lending a hand. This
year, a number of departments have
included planting among their team
events under the Role Model Programme 2.0. RED
TREES ARE WIZARDS
THAT SOOTHE, LOWER
TEMPERATURE, RELIEVE
HEAT AND ABSORB CARBON
DIOXIDE
One example
for all
The PFS-P – Programme
Management team significantly
contributed to the desired
1 million planted trees. At
the beginning of November,
it planted more than 1,000
seedlings of oaks and pines in
record time under the Role Model
Programme 2.0. They did this
on an area of 0.75 hectares in
the vicinity of Ledec near Mladá
Boleslav. Within the framework
of the ŠKODA Trees programme,
ŠKODA employees have created
a continuous wort area from
which a new and healthy mixed
forest will eventually emerge.
9