PVI Industries, an American water heaters manufacturer, selected Outokumpu’s proprietary lean duplex grade LDX 2101 to replace carbon steel in its water heaters. Using lean duplex has significantly reduced PVI Industries’ waste stream and increased the useful life of its water heaters. PVI Industries produces water heaters for large commercial end-users like hotels, restaurants, schools, universities and hospitals. Water heaters can be as large as 11m by 2m, and contain as much as 17,000l of water.
Chris Bollas, president at PVI Industries, said: “Using LDX 2101 on our water heater tanks has achieved our goal of reducing our waste stream, because stainless steel does not require any coating or plating. Previously, PVI was using electroless nickel plating to reduce corrosion in the carbon steel water heater tanks. The process generated nearly 600,000 kg of waste a year. Clear savings are achieved since no maintenance is required.” Moving to duplex stainless steel also reduced PVI’s waste stream to nearly zero. The efforts were recognised by the State of Texas at the 2014 Environmental Excellence Awards where PVI received the honour for Pollution Prevention.
