ENERGY MANAGEMENT | PROCESSING


Energy savings can be applied widely in injection moulding – from the machine itself to material refinements and improvements to critical ancillary equipment


Good save: cutting energy consumption


The race towards Net Zero overlaps with a more general need to save energy, and this can be achieved across the spectrum of the injection moulding process – from modifying ancillary equipment to controlling conditions on the machine itself. In one recent example, Bericap UK and Sumi- tomo (SHI) Demag say an 18-month collaborative development project – testing aspects of the Pac-E machine in a real production setting – shows benefits including more than 50% energy savings, as well as fast cycle times and short ROI time. It is uncommon for companies to embed end-users in the creation of a flagship innovation, especially in large-scale machinery, they said. However, the companies tested the new energy- efficient, fast-cycle Pac-E machine for caps and closures using high-pressure production condi- tions. Through the work, they showed the advan- tages of integrating operational insights from end-users in the development process. Bericap in Hull provided a real-world production


environment to validate and optimise the machine’s capabilities. Accommodating a 350-tonne Pac-E in active production, over 18 months the machine ran over 11 million cycles. This enabled the Sumitomo team to fine-tune cycle speeds, further-improve component resilience and reduce energy consump- tion in cap production by over 50%. “The machine was running continuously and


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proving to be so energy efficient and reliable, it was challenging to persuade the production team to switch it off to make adjustments,” said Dean Bramley, a process engineer at Bericap UK. For the duration of the project, engineers,


process managers, directors and technical special- ists from both companies hosted regular on-site reviews, bi-weekly development meetings and weekly technical calls. This continuous feedback loop allowed Pac-E to evolve through live produc- tion insights rather than lab-based testing. The all-electric direct drives, designed by


Japanese parent company Sumitomo Electric, served as a springboard to initiate faster machine developments for sectors typically served by hydraulic and hybrid machines, added Dave Raine, managing director of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag in the UK & Ireland. By the end of the testing programme, the team had generated all the production data required to prove that Pac-E achieved speeds and energy savings once considered “unattainable with all-electric injection moulding”. Aaron Driver, an engineer at Sumitomo (SHI)


Demag, added: “Cycle time, energy consumption and machine uptime are the biggest variables in ROI, so became our core development priorities.” The study drew attention to the re-engineered motion system optimised for short-stroke, high- precision applications. Though maximum injection


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Main image: Bericap and Sumitomo (SHI) Demag tested the Pac-E


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machine in an 18-month project


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