Camarillo Firm Voluntarily Cleans Up Its Act : Pollution: California Amplifier eliminated the use of chlorinated solvents, which damage the ozone layer.

It may not have been an environmental breakthrough when California Amplifier decided last year to stop emitting ozone-damaging chemicals from its manufacturing plant.

After all, the Camarillo-based company had been a “pretty small source” of pollution, according to Karl Krause, manager of the engineering section of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District.

Nevertheless, David Nichols, California Amplifier’s president, remembers thinking: “We’re part of the problem. Do we have to be?” That simple question led to the environmental overhaul.

So California Amplifier--which makes components for satellite dishes--voluntarily launched its environmental cleanup, redesigning its manufacturing to stop the use of chlorinated solvents to clean electronic circuit boards. Such solvents attack the earth’s ozone layer, which shields the planet’s surface from harmful radiation.

Nichols said the company’s overhaul cost about $75,000--a not-so-small sum for a company that did about $11 million in sales in the nine months that ended Dec. 1.

The changes make California Amplifier one small example among the growing number of companies that are reducing their environmental impact without waiting for a government order.

For example, nearby in Camarillo a Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) plant, which the federal Environmental Protection Agency said was the region’s biggest toxic chemical polluter in 1988, began a program about 20 months ago to cut its chemical emissions by 76% from its 1987 levels. So far, the campaign has cut such emissions from the plant, which makes magnetic computer tape, by 37%.

In a nationally heralded move, McDonald’s Corp. announced it would launch an effort to reduce the trash produced by its 11,000 outlets by more than 80%. McDonald’s had worked with the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit group, to find ways to recycle more of its paper waste, compost more of its organic waste and simply produce fewer throwaways, such as ketchup packets and coffee cups. Because McDonald’s is such an important customer to many packaging manufacturers, the voluntary changes are expected to be influential.

Omitting chlorinated solvents from industrial processes, as California Amplifier did, is a significant step, according to David Roe, a senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund.

The source of the problem solvents at California Amplifier was vapor de-greasers, or the machines that turned liquid solvents into a fog to rinse off circuit boards. The circuit boards had to be rinsed because of a corrosive ingredient called flux, which is contained in the solder used to connect tiny electronic components. The flux helped the solder stick to the boards, but would begin to corrode the devices later if not rinsed off.

California Amplifier’s director of advanced technology, Joel Raymond, first found a type of solder containing non-corrosive flux. He also came up with ways that California Amplifier could use about two-thirds less solder. Combined, the simple changes allowed the company to eliminate the need for the solvents to rinse off the flux.

Nichols figures the overhaul cost the company $20,000 in labor--to design the new process, train workers and refit the plant--but the changes had some benefits for the company.

For one thing, using the solvent was costly; in 1990, the company bought about seven drums of the solvent at about $1,200 each--about $300 of which was a tax slapped on the chemical to discourage its use. After the changes, Raymond said, the company was able to reassign several workers, including one who had cleaned the circuit boards. Also, the company won’t have to renew a county permit that allowed it to emit about two tons of the solvent into the atmosphere each year.

California Amplifier also spent $30,000 in new equipment and $25,000 in labor to change the way it paints the gray boxes that house its electronic devices. California Amplifier stopped using a liquid spray-painting system--which allowed fumes from the paint to escape into the atmosphere--and started coating the boxes with a powdered paint that, in a second step, is baked on.