PROCESSING | ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Right: Exxon- Mobil works with injection moulders to optimise machine
performance
condition to diagnose potential equipment problems before they occur.” Another major oil company offering specialist
hydraulic fluids suitable for injection moulding machines is ExxonMobil. It cites the case of a switch to its Mobil DTE 10 Excel hydraulic fluid helping MPact Polymers in South Africa reduce the energy used by processing equipment at its Pinetown site by 7%. Once again, the move also helped optimise equipment performance, which reduced unsched- uled maintenance, while the hydraulic fluid’s long life cut waste oil disposal costs. ExxonMobil also recommended that MPact
Polymers implement Mobil Serv Lubricant Analysis. The used oil analysis program can detect issues before they become problems. The oil’s high shear stability and wide operating
temperature range helped deliver a 7% average reduction in energy consumption. Data from Mobil Serv Lubricant Analysis confirmed the oil’s long in-service life, which reduced hydraulic fluid consumption by 200 litres. This extended oil drain intervals, reducing the time taken for manual interventions by 27 hours over the space of a year. To help plastics processors achieve their energy saving goals, ExxonMobil several months ago produced a free ‘Energy Saving Guide for Injection Moulding Companies’, in partnership with Injection World and Tangram Technology, which consults on energy management (see box, page 38, and Injection World December 2018). A third oil supplier, Chevron, notes that the
formulation of a high performance premium hydraulic fluid has a direct impact on whether or not it can improve the productivity and/or energy efficiency of the application. “One way that premium hydraulic fluids are able to increase the efficiency is their ability to stay in the ‘sweet spot’ of the viscosity curve in the overall hydraulic
system,” it says (see graph below). “Other properties of the premium hydraulic fluids also contribute to this phenomenon through lower fluid friction and/or even lower boundary friction of the moving components. All of these elements together benefit the overall hydraulic system, not only in its gains in efficiency, but also in wear protection, and potentially lower overall operating temperatures.” Chevron cites a field trial conducted to evaluate
Clarity Synthetic Hydraulic Oil versus a monograde hydraulic oil in a Husky XL 300 machine. The equipment, which had been well maintained, was operating 24/7, producing PET bottle preforms. The machine was equipped with additional sensors and instrumentation to capture data that could not be obtained from the system computer. This included pressure transducers for each pump; temperature sensors added on the pump outlets, reservoir and ambient; and electric motor three- phase amperage and voltage. Two fluids were evaluated: Clarity Synthetic Hydraulic Oil AW 32, and an AW 46 monograde oil as a reference. Use of Clarity Synthetic Hydraulic Oil AW 32 resulted in a 4.2% reduction in power consumption. The concept of the sweet spot also crops up in discussions at Evonik. It says its Dynavis technology offers a promising approach for hydraulic injection moulding machines. Compared to conventional fluids, those formulated with Dynavis technology can lower the energy consumption of some injection moulding machines by more than 10%. The technology improves the flow characteristics
Chevron says: “One way that premium hydraulic fluids are able to increase the efficiency is their ability to stay in the ‘sweet spot’ of the viscosity curve in the overall hydraulic system”
34 INJECTION WORLD | May 2019
of hydraulic fluids by widening the temperature range and efficiency of hydraulic units. Normally, hydraulic equipment works with high efficiency in just a particular temperature range; at tempera- tures that are too high or too low, the performance of the machine can drop. “Oils formulated with Dynavis technology have optimised viscosity: at low temperatures they flow better, while at higher temperatures they remain more viscous”, says Rolf
www.injectionworld.com
PHOTO: EXXONMOBIL
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