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ENERGY MANAGEMENT F
The Bloomie living vases, injection moulded using recycled material by Bloom-in-Box.
FLOWER POWER
SOLAR POWERED ROBOSHOT SETS BLOOM-IN-BOX ON ROAD TO NET ZERO
The energy-efficient ROBOSHOT S150iA installed at Bloom-in- Box’s Burscough facility uses just 3kW per hour, permitting it to be powered exclusively by renewable solar energy.
28 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 | INDUSTRIAL COMPLIANCE
ollowing its investment in an energy- saving FANUC ROBOSHOT injection moulding machine, eco- conscious plastic products manufacturer Bloom-in-Box is well on the way to becoming carbon neutral. Thanks to superior servo technology and intelligent power regeneration capabilities, the energy-efficient ROBOSHOT S150iA installed at Bloom-in-Box’s Burscough facility uses just 3kW per hour, permitting it to be powered exclusively by renewable solar energy. “Our goal at Bloom-in-Box is to become carbon neutral over the next 12-18 months. We have been working with all-electric machines for the last 20 years to reduce power consumption and emissions. Solar installations and our new FANUC ROBOSHOT were the next steps to achieving this. Thanks to these latest investments, our current carbon emissions as a business are estimated to be
less than 10 tonnes of CO2 per year, with our ultimate goal to achieve net zero,” says Tom Reardon, production coordinator and robotics engineer at Bloom-in-Box.
BORN AGAIN PLASTICS
Bloom-in-Box is a third-generation, family-run plastic injection moulding business grounded in an ethos of responsible consumption and production. A commitment to creating products with more than one life drives the company’s design and manufacturing activities and in 2018 earned Bloom-in-Box a place in the final of Best Recycled Plastic Product of the Year for its Bloomie floristry box. The Bloomie is made from 99 per cent recycled material and is 100 per cent recyclable. Any boxes that mould incorrectly are chopped up, passed through a grinder and made into security spikes. Other products made by the business include laundry pegs, scoops and measures. Bloom-in-Box has been involved in injection moulding for more than 20 years and has always been an advocate of electric moulding machines on the basis that they use up to 80 per cent less energy than their hydraulic counterparts. When significant growth meant the company had reached maximum production capacity last year, it took the decision to invest in a new electric machine that would enable it to increase capacity by 25 to 40 per cent. “We had reached a plateau. Our older machines were slower, causing production bottlenecks, and lacked the precise temperature control needed for working with biodegradable plastics,” recalls Reardon.
CARBON NEUTRAL AMBITIONS
At the same time, the company had embarked on a roadmap to become carbon neutral, starting with an assessment of its carbon footprint. This revealed that electricity was its biggest source of carbon emissions, accounting for 95 per cent of its total emissions. To address this situation, in November 2021, Bloom-in-Box installed a 40kWp solar system that feeds
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