IT’S not hard to imagine a plant where all the lights are switched on for only a few people, conveyors are left running for no reason, and air conditioning operating at full power all year round. Energy wastage is becoming an increasing global concern, particularly when it comes to manufacturing operations.
At a recent conference in Sydney, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, the France-based CEO of Schneider Electric, emphasised the importance of using automation to conserve energy.
“We need to give our kids a better planet. In the past, we were committed to safety and reliability. Today, our biggest concern is energy efficiency.
“As electricity bills are set to go up, we are aiming to produce up to 15-20% electricity savings for our customers,” said Tricoire.
Other automation companies and organisations are following suit, with products and initiatives aimed at reducing industry’s usage of electricity and ensuring that each process is as energy-efficient as possible.
Keeping an eye on energy use
Dean Tresidder, Rockwell Automation’s Australian Power and Energy Management Solutions (PEMS) marketing manager, explains that being energy efficient does not necessarily mean using cutting edge equipment, but more importantly, analysing processes through automated monitoring systems to find ways to curb energy usage in everyday practices.
“In the past, power monitors didn’t exist because people were happy just to run the plant. Today, we’re focussing on not only making the product, but also collecting information and data through automation to look at where we can make energy savings,” Tresidder told Manufacturers’ Monthly.
“For electrical monitoring, a company could insert a device into the power line, so operators can look at how much power is being used on one production line and compare it to another.
“All the information would then be gathered and put into a database, available for analysis in reports, charts and spreadsheets,” he said.
Monitoring systems are now being developed to incorporate ‘weather stations’ that can examine the environmental conditions of a plant. Room temperature and other external factors can be taken into account when making potential energy saving decisions, such as how long an air conditioner should run for and what time lights need to be turned off.
Systems can also pick up whether a machine is running at a speed that is energy efficient.
Tresidder warns that one of the more common reasons for energy wastage is when machines downstream can’t run as fast as upstream processes and parts are cued up in a bottleneck.
To conserve energy, Tresidder also advises small and simple steps can be made to make a process more efficient, such as starting machines one by one and reclaiming the energy released in heat and converting it into other forms.
Manufacturers are also now able to selectively purchase ‘green’ electricity from wind generators instead of coal-generated electricity.
According to Tresidder, this accompanies an increasing trend towards the dispersal of large energy producing plants into smaller generation plants – a development that has already made headways in the US due in part to the latest fuel cell technology.
“This is happening more now in Australia, with a number of smaller production plants running, such as converting methane gas extracted from Landfill into electricity.
“They’re not able to power a whole city, but it’s great for the environment,” he said.
Automating an entire system
At the University of South Australia, the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Research (CAMR) is also working with companies to develop energy efficient solutions using automation.
A recent project saw the transformation of a foundry that manufactured outdoor tables into a more energy efficient operation.
Previously, operators made slurry by holding hoses over a mould, dropping a significant amount of material on the floor.
According to Evangelos Lambrinos, operations and business development manager at CAMR, the centre helped the foundry automate the entire operation using 6-axis robots, resulting in no waste and a smaller stockpile of rejects.
“Automation can help produce energy savings by eliminating waste in terms of material and labour. The throughput of products will be increased, producing more in less time, so accordingly, the demand on energy goes down,” he said.
CAMR is currently working with the rural industry to reduce the demand for diesel generators in primary industries.
Rockwell Automation 03 9896 0300.
CAMR 08 8302 3632
Schneider Electric 1300 369 233.