If your business operates in the world of manufacturing, getting a handle on your energy efficiency can sometimes be quite a challenge. That’s why we’ve taken a good look at the simple and structured approach for making smart energy choices taken by our manufacturer partners SMC.
5 Cornerstones of Energy Efficiency
Renowned for their energy-efficient products and automation solutions, SMC are striving to help manufacturers combat the challenge of the world’s rising energy needs. They structure their approach with 5 cornerstones of energy efficiency that will assist those in manufacturing with making smart energy choices.
Cornerstone 1 – Generating Quantity
The first step toward efficient energy use is producing only what is necessary. It sounds simple and when you think about it – any excess production can only be wasteful. Therefore, planning is key. Manufacturing goods requires planning the exact quantity of raw materials that will be required for the final manufacture. Anything more simply translates into excessive energy usage.
Cornerstone 2 – Recover and Recycle
The second point that SMC makes mainly focuses around recycling energy. Trying to recycle the energy required in a productive process has an exponential effect on the plant’s efficiency, whether that be at the energy generation process or during its usage. With energy transformation leading to heat generation, the heat can simply be reused for any other operation, such as warming water through a heat exchanger, or heating up the plant through hot air distribution. Another often overlooked route to take would be through recovering the released air from cylinders.
Cornerstone 3 – Monitoring Consumption
Monitoring usage consumption is another way of saving energy. With energy consumption constantly fluctuating, adding monitoring systems to processes will drive greater awareness of energy consumption and give greater control on how it is used, whilst also detecting mismatches or unexpected waste.
Cornerstone 4 – Misuse or Sensible Use?
Energy inefficiency in a plant is frequently the consequence of misuse bolstered by the popular belief that compressed air is free. To achieve energy efficient manufacturing processes, SMC refer to these set of questions to ask yourself to assess if you’re maximising your efficiency:
- Misuse or sensible use, what’s your situation?
- Are your components sized correctly?
- Is the air distribution system designed taking into account energy efficiency?
- And finally, when acquiring a new component, do you consider the ones with an energy-efficient design?
Cornerstone 5 – Think Efficiency
To come full circle, SMC refers to the Continuous Improvement philosophy, which they believe energy efficiency sits within. By adopting a holistic approach to implementing efficiency into facilities, we can see the energy efficient potential to our day-to-day working activities and decisions to determine how impactful this approach will be.
Smart Energy Choices in Practice
While excess or wasted energy can be hard to spot, the results are clear when proper strategies are put in place.
SMC suggest that pneumatic pressure boosters are used to provide high pressure only where it is needed; double power pneumatic cylinders to double the force with a single actuator; air saving speed controllers to reduce the pressure for non-productive cycles; pneumatic vacuum units to avoid continuous air waste; and finally stand-by valves to modulate the air entry.
SMC suggest air management systems to monitor and control the pressure of the line and save energy with standby and isolation functions; digital flow switches to measure various air flows and water flow; high precision digital pressure switches to measure air and general fluid pressure; general fluids pressure sensors to remotely monitor pressure; digital pressure switches to measure air pressure; analogic pressure gauges – sometimes referred to as dial gauges – for instant checking; differential pressure gauges to monitor component status; and multi-channel digital sensor monitors to centralise the monitoring of up to 4 different sensors.
At BPX, we understand the desire to combat energy efficiency and make a positive impact in today’s businesses. As SMC Platinum Sales Integrator Partners with more than 50 years of experience and a nationwide branch network with stock local to you, to meet the expectations of the market, we have adopted a customer-centric approach to our factory automation and industrial control business. Most important of all, we can help you make a difference.
If you would like some support with making smart energy choices, please complete the contact form below for further information.
