Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Energy Efficiency
in Production
Preface 1
Operational fields 5
Contact 17
Preface
The 21st century is taking humanity to its natural have in the producing industries to reduce not
limits. Whilst the earth’s population is growing, only costs but also the use of resources and emis-
the availability of raw materials such as oil, natu- sions, by exploiting more efficient technologies.
ral gas, mineral ores and water are declining, not
only for the industrialised societies but also for As part of a study sponsored by the Federal Ger-
third world and developing countries. The con- man Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
sumption-oriented behaviour in fast-developing in its outline programme “Research for the pro-
countries such as China or India, imitating that in duction of tomorrow” (Funding Reference No.:
the affluent nations, requires a massive increase 02PU1000), the Fraunhofer Institutes and other
in gross national product throughout the world. research institutions analysed the potential for
At the same time, it is important to make a sig- the saving of resources, especially energy, in the
nificant reduction in CO2 emissions to counter- producing industries, and have derived from that
act further climate change. the need for action in production research.
The global demand for raw materials has risen The institutes participating in the study are grate-
greatly in recent times, and raw materials are be- ful to all sponsors and supporters, especially the
coming increasingly scarce and more expensive, BMBF, the Karlsruhe Research Centre in its ca-
- by more than 70 % overall between 2001 and pacity as the project management body and the
2008. Raw material costs as a proportion of total Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.
manufacturing costs, at between 30 and 80 %,
are often much higher than labour as a cost fac-
tor.
The need for even more efficient utilisation of
resources is coming more and more sharply into
focus in business, in research and in politics. A
crucial question is what options do companies Prof. Reimund Neugebauer
coal
crude oil
natural gas
uranium
iron ore
copper
End of natural resour-
zinc ces; Source: Bundes-
anstalt für
Geowissenschaften
years 50 100 150 200 und Rohstoffe 2000
1
Resource Efficiency and Production Technology
2
A poll of approx. 450 decision-makers and ex-
perts from companies, research institutions and
industrial associations, conducted in the course
of the study, shows that energy costs usually
play a significant role so far in investment deci-
sions. Payback periods of one to three years
are expected for investments in efficiency. But
resource-intensive process steps can only be opti-
mised in such short lengths of time; they cannot
be replaced or, indeed, eliminated.
3
The study of energy efficiency in production re- Industry accounts for about 40 % of total energy
veals areas in which future research can play a consumption in Germany. This is equivalent to an
part. output of 5,640 petajoules per annum (2005).
Of this, about 680 PJ/a corresponds to the study
Starting with an analysis of products, including period resulting from the selection of the product
the establishment of product categories, through categories named, of which about 30 % could
process chain analysis including examination be saved.
of materials processed, to the identification of
prime energy drivers, the action required by pro- To exploit fully these potential savings, there is an
duction manufacturing technology was identi- urgent need for research and action, centred on
fied, from which the future need for research can the following key areas:
be deduced. - energy and materials efficiency by increasing
process stability
Our examination of “production site Germany” - energy and materials efficiency in mechanical,
focussed on important industrial goods, which thermal and chemical manufacturing processes
were subdivided into the product categories and systems
“premium investment goods”, “premium con- - closed cycle approach to resources / integration
sumer goods” and “mass consumer goods”. The of resources in process chains and systems
emphasis in this was on an examination of the - loss-free operation of infrastructure by produc
efficiency with which the resource ‘energy’ is tion facilities and factories
used from the viewpoint of process chains. - development of methods for sustainable
energy and materials management
financial and
business services public and
traffic and private services
telecommunication
trade and Industry
hospitality ind.
11.9% chemical industry
food
4
Operational fields
Development of methods
for sustainable energy and materials
management
5
Energy and materials efficiency
by increasing process stability
Undoubtedly the most important factor with Costly reworking and rejects with a high value
regard to the conservation of resources is added element already incorporated give rise to
the saving of materials. Firstly, the use of a tremendous loss of all resources.
materials is always associated with losses of
material. Secondly, the cumulative energy Machine status and the corresponding optimal
expenditure introduced due to the material operating range can be captured by developing
used, i.e. the energy expended to produce and providing suitable methods of measurement.
and manufacture the material, is an equally For example, monitoring the operating tempera-
If there are re-
important aspect. ture combined with a warming up strategy short-
jects at the end
If one can succeed in avoiding the manufac- ens the time machines take to get up to speed,
of a machining
ture of faulty parts through “zero-rejects optimises the process and minimises non value-
process chain,
production”, a significant contribution can adding activities.
one kilogram of
be made to resource conservation. A par-
component mass
ticularly high proportion of rejects arises
corresponds to an
in all areas of machine and plant start-up. Process control to avoid resource losses
energy loss of
Research work and developments aimed In the context of machine tools and forming
60 to 80 MJ.
at bringing manufacturing processes up to technology, integrated feedback systems which
speed quickly and safely, and methods to can influence the control of the process can be
increase process stability, contribute signifi- seldom found.
If there are rejects cantly to the conservation of the resources Consequently, systems must be developed so
at the end of a of time, materials and energy. that impending machine faults, the occurrence of
massive forming process fluctuations and the resulting deviations
process chain, are not only measured, but can also be compen-
one kilogram of Control of start-up processes sated for or eliminated by control systems. The
component mass Fluctuations in the process sequence due to use of systems of control can not only shorten
corresponds to an disruptive factors such as inconsistent material the unproductive time in getting machine and
energy loss of characteristics or changing environmental influ- plant up to speed, but can also significantly im-
45 MJ. ences frequently cause production faults, leading prove operating and process safety.
to reworking or rejection. This applies equally to
start-up and restart-up processes of machines The timely identification of process deviations
and plant in which the optimal operating param- and a correspondingly early reaction to them en-
eters such as operating temperatures or working able distinct savings to be made in all resource
pressures, or even technological parameters such areas. The additional expenditure due to invest-
as workforce or feed speeds, have not yet been ment can be recovered within a very short time.
reached or set.
Another aspect not to be ignored is the option of
one hundred percent quality control. One hun-
dred percent monitoring also helps to minimise
faults, even in processes that take place a con-
siderable time later, and thus to save work and
costs, and therefore resources.
To implement monitoring arrangements of this
sort successfully it is important to thoroughly un-
derstand both the requirements of the machinery
and also those of the technology in depth, and
to understand the interactions that exist between
them.
6
Functional properties of high-performance ma-
60 % of metal
terials (e.g. ceramics) open up additional savings
sheets (the start-
potential in the utilisation of energy over their
ing material) in
entire life cycle. The use of long-lived, wear-re-
the automobile
sistant key components shortens or avoids idle
industry go to
times resulting from servicing and maintenance,
waste.
and thus makes a significant contribution to the
energy-efficient design of manufacturing pro-
cesses.
To structure the manufacturing of high-per-
Every kilogram
formance components themselves in a more
of steel saved in
energy-efficient way, high-performance ceramic
production cor-
materials offer additional savings potential: to
responds to 6 to
In this context, the effects of preceding processes achieve the optimised design of a system, it is
21 MJ of energy
must be taken into consideration just as much as necessary to position certain materials properties
saved.
the possible repercussions of proposed measures precisely where they are actually needed. The
on subsequent process steps. development of interconnecting technologies
There is an urgent need for research above all specifically suited to the individual materials and
with regard to a thorough understanding of pro- stresses imposed plays a key role in this, because
cess parameters, their modelling and simulation ever more complex processes and functions
and to derive from this significant characteristics have to be realised in systems that are becoming
both with regard to multisensor data capture sys- smaller and smaller.
tems and multi-criteria control algorithms.
7
Energy and materials efficiency in mechanical, thermal and
chemical manufacturing processes and systems
8
Action and research are needed in several direc- Energy-efficient forming
tions: one area is the capture and processing of and Net-Shape techniques
energy-relevant information for the recording In many areas of manufacturing technology,
and evaluation of energy-relevant parameters. machining processes are first choice on account
To achieve this, the technical design of hardware of their flexibility. On the other hand, forming
and software is needed for sensors and IT struc- processes offer high materials efficiency, and
tures with decentralised machine-machine com- therefore one should endeavour to make their
30 % of energy
munication solutions. The cost pressure in this use more widespread. This is possible by means
consumption by
segment must be considered as well: for systems of more flexible processes and tooling, even for
machine tools
to be accepted, for example, the costs of sensors quite small runs. Of course, many materials have
comes from
must be reduced by a factor of 10 to 100 com- to be heated to enable them to be formed, and a
stand-by opera-
pared with conventional industrial solutions. very large amount of energy is needed for this. It
tion to maintain
There is an urgent need for action in respect of is therefore worth endeavouring to replace hot-
process stability.
integrating energy-relevant information at plant forming processes with cold-forming processes.
and factory level. The early identification of the The use of new materials and the development
start and end of idle times enables machines to of new technologies for cold or semi-hot forming
be switched off and also on again at the right will reduce energy input with the same or better
time. component properties.
Optimisation is possible by means of intelligent The objective of Net-Shape technologies lies in
system monitoring, system diagnosis and self- manufacturing the final contours of a product in
correcting mechanisms. the earliest possible stages of the value adding
Another starting point for a resource-saving process and thus reducing secondary operations.
machine is to design drives and structures ap- Although these technologies cannot be qualified
propriate to requirements and thus avoid over-di- for all product specifications, they offer excellent
mensioning. Hybrid drive concepts appropriate to potential for improvement from the energy view-
requirements need to be developed so that the point.
parameters of the drive system can be adapted Research should concentrate on qualifying existing
flexibly to suit the technological working points Net-Shape technologies for additional applications
and the environmental parameters of the ma- and developing new generative Net-Shape pro-
chine. cesses which can be combined with conventional
manufacturing processes.
Studies of machine tools have revealed that the
basic loads amount to up to three quarters of the
total power consumption and only one quarter
is consumed by the process itself. In addition, it
can be assumed that machine tools are actually
working for only 15 % of the operating time on
small runs, and, in some circumstances, for up to
only 40 % of the operating time on large runs.
The remaining time is spent by the machine in a
waiting state or on set-up time, during which it
nevertheless runs at full basic load. Potential sav-
ings of 10 to 25 % are possible.
9
If a machining process is replaced by cold form- In the sheet metal processing industry, powder
ing when using steel, for example, there is a coating takes place after machining (3-dimen-
savings potential of 6 megajoules per kilogram; sional components), and this demands costly
with aluminium, depending on the proportion plant engineering.
recycled, it is up to 100 megajoules. Other po- In the areas of pretreatment chemistry and pow-
tential savings arise if hot forming is carried out der mould coatings for low-temperature applica-
at lower temperatures. A resource efficiency tions, studies are needed to enable the powder
increase of up to 25 % can be achieved by gen- mould coating of sheet metals to be carried
erative (Net-Shape) processes. Further significant out before machining (e.g. forming). Action is
savings potential lies in the optimisation of fre- needed in the optimisation of bending tools and
quently outdated equipment. in adapting them to suit powder mould coating,
and in relation to improving the expansion prop-
erties of powder mould coatings irrespective of
Optimisation of painting and the layer thickness achievable in each particular
In plating (hard
coating processes case.
chrome plat-
Painting processes are carried out in many differ- Painting installations for metal plates or coils (2-
ing), 3.3 kWh or
ent application areas and sectors. The estimate dimensional workpieces) are considerably smaller
around 12 MJ
is that there are about 100,000 paint processing and have significantly lower energy consump-
of energy per
plants in Germany. Major potential savings are to tion, with their high throughputs in relation to
square metre are
be expected with many painting processes. Thus, unit area, than large installations for 3-dimen-
needed for a plat-
for example, the change from solvent-based liq- sional components. There is therefore a major
ing thickness of
uid coatings to the more advantageous powder interest in the further development of fast and
1 µm.
coating technology requires a degreasing process compact coating processes on 2-dimensional
of substrate surfaces in addition in many cases, blanks or coils.
in order to attain the same paint adhesion quality When coating products made from solid material
as with a solvent-based paint. This involves heat- (e.g. gearbox housings) the surface/component
ing the workpiece twice (for degreasing approx. mass ratios are unfavourable. There is a require-
65°C, for drying residual water approx. 120°C). ment here for research into new coating and
drying methods and paint systems, in order to
reduce the heating of the entire component.
Coating of
washing machine
bodies
10
Closed resource cycles / integration of resources
in process chains and systems
The utilisation of energy and materials in make greater %ages of diffuse losses in the pro-
resource cycles in a closed loop is another cess as a whole economically exploitable. One
important topic. In addition to the improve- example that could be mentioned is the nano-
ments achieved to date in the sphere of recy- coating of heat exchange surfaces. To match the
cling and media provision, it is increasingly a waste heat generated to the demand for process
matter of integrating resource cycles within heat at the right time and in the right quality, in-
process chains and within production com- novative heat reservoirs and circular processes fit
In the sphere
munities generally. The latter is growing in for industrial application are required to convert
of hot forming,
importance particularly because the speciali- low-temperature heat into higher value process
practically the en-
sation of companies is leading to less specific energy.
tire energy used
involvement in the manufacture of the fin- Interesting fields of development are sorption-
for heating is lost
ished product and therefore to a subdivision driven heat pumps, refrigerating machines and
energy. This is
into possible cycles. In future, research topics heat transformers, as well as electricity genera-
equivalent to
in energy provision, transfer, conversion and tion from waste heat, for example Organic Ran-
166 KWh or
recovery, as well as energy storage, must be kine Cycle installations for industrial applications.
600 MJ per
linked more closely to machines and pro- In the case of mechanical losses due to braked
tonne.
cesses in the field of production, in addition masses, the mechanical energy should be recov-
to the areas of media provision dealt with ered directly within the drive system via storage
hitherto. Examination and integration above systems.
and beyond process chains is tremendously
important in this. The current potential for economically worth-
while research areas in the considered industry is
estimated at approx. 20 PJ of primary energy sav-
Energy recovery, conversion, transport ing. It is worth pointing out the synergy between
and storage the technologies mentioned in the previous para-
Energy losses in manufacturing processes remain graph and research in the area of regenerative
unavoidable even if all potential savings are ex- energy technology.
ploited. In the segment of industry examined,
energy is mainly lost due to being diffused into
the environment as heat. If waste heat can be
transferred efficiently into a fluid using technol-
ogy available on the market, the “captured”
waste heat can be utilised mainly only seasonally
for space heating, as there
are no possibilities of using
it in appropriate quantity, at performance input
appropriate temperatures
and at appropriate times in
the manufacturing process. recovered energy
Energy recovery by short
and direct routes requires
performance
the energy integration of loss of the
machines and plant within main drive performance loss
a combined manufacturing of energy recovery
step. Greater efficiency, suit-
ability for difficult areas of
application and low invest-
ment costs are development performance
loss of the
objectives in the field of cushion
heat transfer and transport
technologies, in order to
11
Recycling There is an urgent need for action and research
The use of recycling materials from production with regard to the development of intelligent
waste makes a significant contribution to im- recycling concepts for production waste either
proving energy efficiency. This contribution re- within the processing unit itself, through col-
sults predominantly from the distinctly lower use laborative arrangements across the company,
of energy required for the production of second- or by setting up systems to capture and recycle
ary material. unmixed materials, such as industrial glassware
The re-use of sec-
In the ideal situation, recyclable material from and aluminium, for example. The objective is to
ondary aluminium
production can be utilised further without fur- reduce the levels of primary material use.
needs only 1/5 of
ther energy-intensive melting processes or simi-
the energy neces-
lar, thus further improving energy efficiency. Sheet metal and stamping waste is currently fed
sary to produce
There is a large potential in metal processing, into steel recycling via scrap metal dealers. The
primary alumin-
especially in the area of sheet metal and stamp- direct re-use of this waste has happened only
ium.
ing waste. For example, up to 60 % of metal marginally to date in individual companies. De-
sheets used in automobile production end up tailed figures on this are not yet available. There
as production waste. The same applies to other is also a great potential in industrial glassware,
areas. One example that can be mentioned is the because there is currently no recycling of the ap-
Only about 1/3
production of industrial glassware. At present, propriate types of glass.
of the annual
no secondary material is used due to a lack of
consumption of
suitable recovery and recycling logistics systems,
steel, copper and
because high-quality, unmixed recycled material
aluminium in
is needed for this purpose.
Germany is cov-
ered by secondary
material.
12
Loss-free operation of infrastructure
by production facilities and factories
Supply chain-management
To arrive at an integrated evaluation and opti-
misation of energy efficiency in production, it is
essential to include in one’s considerations the
production environment, in addition to manuf-
acturing technologies and machines. At present,
energy aspects are only inadequately taken into
consideration in the distribution, structuring and
evaluation of added value in production net-
works. Energy consumption and the energy-effi-
cient production of goods in a supply chain play
only a subordinate role. Admittedly, the optimal
structuring of information and material flows
within a production network is central to supply
chain management; however, integrated supply
13
Energy-efficient supply systems Increasing energy efficiency through local opti-
and structures in the factory misation of individual systems and structures is
The transformation process to yield percenta- already showing notable savings potential. Inte-
ges of added value is inconceivable without the grated analysis, planning and design are the next
supply and disposal systems of the factory’s in- logical step.
Up to 40 % of
frastructure. The supply or infrastructure systems
the energy can
provide mainly industrial media such as water, The results achievable are dependent very largely
be saved in the
electricity, natural gas, heat/cold, compressed air, on the preconditions that exist. However, in ge-
generation of
cutting oils, industrial gases etc. for production neral, savings similar to those with local optimi-
compressed air by
techniques and processes. The requirements are sation can be expected, which average 20-30 %
converting and
mainly specified by the production systems. In at present.
modernising the
addition, the production environment and the
plant.
product itself set additional requirements, e.g.
for lighting, cleanliness and air conditioning. The Intralogistics
optimisation in these matters is pursued locally in In spite of the proven high potential for savings
the sphere of supply systems at individual points and rationalisation in intralogistics, energy effi-
or on individual systems. An integrated approach ciency is left in the background in the planning
between the supply systems and the production of intralogistics systems. In the designing of
systems hardly exists. All the supply systems and material flow systems, energy costs have been
structures today are the subject of projects that estimated on a flat-rate basis to date (in gene-
are for the most part independent of other supp- ral, as a percentage of investment costs, often
ly or production systems. approx. 3 % p.a. for energy costs). No schedule
To achieve further increases in energy efficiency is prepared of the energy costs depending on
in this area, a systemic approach to the integra- the conveyor systems and storage facilities used
ted planning and optimisation of supply systems and their arrangement or their interaction in the
and structures must be developed. The aim system, because the key values necessary for this
must be to attain an overall optimum via the are not available. At the same time, focussing
exploitation of synergies, in order to set up ener- on the investment costs inhibits the spread of
gy-efficient supply and production structures in systems optimised for consumption. In addition
factories. to the availability of precision values for technical
system alternatives, the creation of new drive
and operating concepts which will enable alter-
native drive concepts to be developed is a sig-
nificant building block as far as the diffusion of
energy-related design principles in intralogistics is
concerned.
14
Development of methods
for sustainable energy and materials management
15
Peripheral operational fields
16
Contact Kontakt
Other Partners:
Fraunhofer Institute for - Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems
Industrial Engineering IAO and Design Technology IPK, Berlin
Nobelstrasse 12 - Chemnitz University of Technology, Professor
70569 Stuttgart, Germany ship of Human Factors and Ergonomics
Phone: +49 (0)7 11 / 9 70-01 - RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Plastics
www.iao.fraunhofer.de Processing
Director: - TU Dortmund, Institute of Forming Technology
Prof. Dieter Spath and Lightweight Construction IUL
- TU Darmstadt, Institute of Production
Management, Technology and Machine Tools
Fraunhofer Institute for - InnoMat GmbH, Chemnitz
Factory Operation and Automation IFF
Sandtorstrasse 22 This study was performed from June 2007 to
39106 Magdeburg, Germany February 2008 under the auspices of the Project
Phone: +49 (0)3 91 / 40 90-0 Management Agency Forschungszentrum Karls-
www.iff.fraunhofer.de ruhe Dresden branch and the Federal Ministry of
Director: Education and Research, Germany.
Prof. Michael Schenk (for more information:
www.produktionsforschung.de).
17
FUNDED BY SUPPORTED BY