Product category:
Food and drink manufacturing: processing equipment
News Release from: Festo | Subject: Energy Saving Service
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 20 March 2006
Air consumption optimised to cut energy
costs
One of the UK's largest snack food manufacturing plants will reduce its energy costs by GBP 10,000/year by optimising the air consumption of its pneumatic automation systems.
One of the UK's largest snack food manufacturing plants, producing some 175 million products a year, is reducing its energy costs substantially by optimising the air consumption of its pneumatic automation Each of the plant's six production lines is based extensively on pneumatic automation, making it a heavy user of compressed air
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 13 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The company recently engaged Festo's new Energy Saving Service to provide a detailed analysis of its automation-specific energy consumption.
This identified a number of areas that warranted improvement or remedial action, and the company is now in the process of implementing these changes - which it is estimated will lead directly to a GBP 10,000 per year reduction in energy costs.
The facility operates a Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) program to identify areas for continuous improvement.
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The TPM team's objectives were to reduce compressed air consumption in order to directly reduce the cost of energy used, and to ensure continued compliance with the company's ISO 40001 environmental management standard.
A third objective was to demonstrate active energy saving projects, to help retain the facility's discount on extra electricity costs imposed by the Climate Change Levy.
The TPM team sought the advice of pneumatic automation distributor Cymru Automation, who recommended Festo's Energy Saving Service and helped organise a pre-survey visit to identify the most appropriate processing line to examine in detail.
According to Cymru Automation's Keith Fordham, "The plant is a 24/7 manufacturing operation, making it vital to maintain throughput.
Festo went to considerable lengths to ensure that system downtime would be minimised during the subsequent survey, by familiarising site personnel with the process, identifying key points for consideration, and meticulously planning the installation and removal of test equipment." As part of its energy surveys, Festo normally physically identifies areas of production lines that need remedial action with improvement tags, but on this occasion, given the food manufacturing environment, elected to use digital photography instead.
The results were presented to the manufacturer in presentational form on CD, which proved an ideal way of communicating the findings and agreeing an activity plan with the line improvement teams.
The survey benchmarked the actual energy consumption and real cost of air leaks on a single representative production line equipped with 10 individual machines.
The cost of air leakage on the line amounted to GBP 1,534 per year, with similar figures anticipated for the facility's other five lines.
The total saving that could be achieved simply by fixing the leaks was estimated to be in the region of GBP 10,000 per year.
Festo also identified a number of operational safety issues and productivity improvement areas, as well as actions that could simplify routine maintenance.
Following the survey, the manufacturer immediately addressed the potential safety issues and then prioritised improvement activities, selecting the four worst case machines - which accounted for 87% of the cost of the leaks on the line - for remedial maintenance.
Typically, this involved repairing leaking pipework, fitting new high visibility regulator valves and upgrading air preparation equipment.
The task was considerably simplified by the fact that Festo produced air flow and pressure drop graphs for each machine, to identify those suspected of having air starvation problems.
In a number of cases, Festo also recommended moving valves closer to the pneumatic cylinders that they control, to increase machine productivity.
The knowledge gained is now being applied to other areas of the facility, and the manufacturer is updating its equipment specifications to ensure that all new automation meets with its best practice targets.
It is also now standardising on Festo equipment, supplied by Cymru Automation, Festo Premier Distributor.
The potential energy savings identified by the survey translate directly into bottom line cost savings - as the facility uses variable speed air compressors - and the payback period will be less than three months.
Festo has been invited to conduct a follow-up survey to confirm the savings. Request a free brochure from Festo ...
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