GREEN PRODUCTION SUPPLEMENT ECO DESIGN DIRECTIVE/BLUE COMPETENCE


Indeed, the Fraunhofer Institute, which conducted a 2010 preparatory study for the European Commission, concluded that “ecodesign solutions have to consider conditions of application” and “any option has to be assessed carefully for the intended application.” But the Eco Machine Tools report highlights that there are no big wins to be had. “The assessment of the various technical eco-design measures is based on a survey among machinery and component manufacturers, and complemented by research on technical options. The assessment unveils that there is a multitude of options, each with a small energy savings potential in the range of 1%, but it can be anticipated that a combination of several options could lead to significant total savings.” And it adds that, for metalcutting machining centres “total energy savings potentials at the point of Least Life Cycle Costs are in the range of 3-5%”.


Considering three scenarios following a change occurring in 2014, energy savings for all machine tools considered (not only metalcutting) versus a do-nothing, business-as-usual case are put at between 5 and 9% in 2025, depending on the directive’s chosen approach. Individual cases could be above and below this, the study offers, since the so-called ‘base case’ machines modelled in nine machine tool groups are not representative of all. And the Eco Machine Tools report concludes: “Given the typically long lifetime of the machinery considered, any implemented measure is projected to yield significant overall savings results only over the mid to long term.”


FEBRUARY 2014 REPORT Returning to the present day and the Bio Intelligence impact assessment is expected to be available in February of next year, with the adoption of the directive likely to follow some 18 months, or so, later. However, in the autumn of this year, CECIMO says that there will be a consultation forum, organised by the European Commission, at which a draft report will be discussed, with further CECIMO SRI discussion also possibly on the agenda.


8


Sales information


Productivity Quality


Accuracy


Availability Service Price


Positive experience Safety


Life cycle costs Image Design


Energy consumption 0.5 1.0 1.5 1 = most important 5 = not very important 2.0 2.5 3.0 Average value


What do machine tool suppliers believe are the most important marketing messages? (Eco Machine Tools)


A looming problem highlighted by CECIMO is that the development of standards to underpin any regulatory or self-regulatory approach will lag the adoption of a directive – “When the implementing measures or a voluntary agreement becomes effective, the standards may not be ready.” As to any energy labelling, as per


washing machines etc: “The machine tool industry does not support labelling, due to its complexity,” the organisation offers. In the meantime, the Blue Competence Machine Tools initiative moves on, with eight CECIMO national associations and 54 companies across Europe, but mostly from Germany, having jumped on board – the UK’s Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) being one of those associations.


CECIMO has adopted a document template for use by member companies to highlight their energy-saving/eco-friendly efforts and technologies, although most are currently in the German language. These will be translated and made available at the organisation’s Blue Competence webite (www.cecimo.eu/site/ blue-competence-mt) as they become available, but there are many machine tool companies already highlighting their energy-efficiency credentials, as the online supplement reveals.


How interested machine tool end users are is a moot point, however. As the Eco Machine Tools report offers: “Recent survey results show, that ‘energy efficiency’ – despite some outstanding initiatives – is not very important in the marketing of the machine tool manufacturers [so not perceived important to end users]. The important facts are price, cutting speed and innovative equipment.” Although it does add that in the automotive industry the Total Cost of Ownership approach is considered, however. Of course, while we are talking EU-wide


in this article, the price of energy, specifically electricity, varies greatly from country to country. The lowest industrial price is €0.06326/kWh, in Bulgaria, with the highest found in Cyprus, €0.16953, or 2.7 times as expensive. In the UK, the price is €0.09895 – ranking 12th


countries. So economic benefits will similarly vary.


Interested or not, though, machine tools


will, slowly, become more energy efficient, and efforts to make them so will become a more prominent element in marketing materials and efforts, Indeed, at this year’s EMO exhibition, in September (16-21 Hanover), there will be a Blue Competence booth that will see alliance members present their sustainability solutions. ■


May 2013 www.machinery.co.uk 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0


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