Professional Documents
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Plastics Industry
Energy Efficiency
Source: PackTech
Energy Efficiency
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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The industry currently has to cope with price increases because of the high price of oil
and a temporary shortage of raw materials.
On average, prices have risen between 50 per cent (for polypropylene (PP)) and 100 per
cent (for polystyrene (PS)) since the start of 2004.
This increase has manifested itself in the increased price of plastic end products such as
packaging, building materials (insulation, pipes, window profiles, etc.), automobile
components, and a huge variety of other types of equipment. Further price increases are
expected in the coming months.
EuPC (European Plastics Converters) is also presently warning about the uncertain
supply of raw materials. Plastics processing companies are increasingly being confronted
by shortages of raw materials from suppliers, who in recent years have invested most
heavily in new production capacity in the Middle East and Asia.
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Energy Efficiency
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The consistently strong growth in the consumption of plastics in China, India, Central
Europe, and Russia is certainly playing a role in this phenomenon. As a result, European
plastics processors are not always able to secure the quantities of materials they wish to
order. [1]
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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The extrusion, injection moulding, and blow moulding production processes are
described in this section. These are the most common processes in the industry.
2.1.1 Extrusion
PRINCIPLE
Plastic pellets are added to the extruder. A screw pushes the grains through a heated
barrel. The grains are pressed together and melt. To heat the barrel, thermal oil is often
used, usually heated electrically. The plastic is pressed into the correct shape in the
mould at the end of the screw and cooled by water or air. When the product has reached
the desired length, it is cut to size.
Figure 3 Extruder unit, (1) Extruder, (2) Granulate (3) Extrusion mould (4) Extrusion
profile
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ENERGY CONSUMERS
The biggest energy consumers in the extrusion process are the motors, heating units,
cooling processes, and compressors. Figure 4 shows a diagram of the extrusion process.
To gain a clearer understanding of energy management, it is advisable to look at energy
consumption in relation to time. It can then be seen if energy consumption is
commensurate with production. The large energy consumers in particular must be
carefully matched to the process to ensure they do not operate unnecessarily.
PRINCIPLE
Injection moulding is a cyclical process mainly used for making plastic parts. Fluid plastic
is forced into a mould using an injection technique. It is a fast process and used for the
production of identical parts.
The injection unit used for injection moulding corresponds to that of the extrusion
process. The plastic is added, heated, and forced through the nozzle into a mould. The
difference between injection moulding and extrusion lies in the mould. With extrusion, the
mould is an opening where the plastic continuously flows out in a certain shape. With
injection moulding, the mould is a template into which the plastic is forced. The mould
consists of two parts that are electrically or hydraulically pressed against each other.
After the product has hardened, the mould is opened and the product is further
processed.
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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ENERGY CONSUMERS
Energy consumption with injection moulding can be divided into two phases. In the first
phase, there is high energy consumption during the injection of the plastic and when the
parts are removed. The other phase has lower energy consumption over a longer period
when the plastic is cooled.
The majority of the energy is used by the heaters and motors. The remaining energy is
used by peripheral and other equipment.
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PRINCIPLE
Blow moulding is used to make hollow objects such as plastic bottles. Molten plastic is
blown by compressed air to form the desired shape.
The injection unit is similar to that for extrusion and injection moulding.
The most important blow moulding processes are:
• Extrusion blow moulding
• Injection blow moulding
With extrusion blow moulding, plastic is extruded in the form of a tube. Then a mould
closes around the tube and the plastic is blown by compressed air and pushed against
the mould wall. The object is cooled while under pressure. Figure 8 shows an example of
extrusion blow moulding.
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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In injection blow moulding, a preform mould is first filled by injection moulding. Then the
preform is placed in a blow mould where it is again heated and blown with compressed
air. Blowing can also take place at other locations, for example where the bottles are
filled. This reduces transport costs.
ENERGY CONSUMERS
The energy consumers for blow moulding are the same as extrusion and injection
moulding because the main process to produce the plastic is essentially the same.
• Hydraulic
• Electrical
• Hybrid
As can be seen in Figure 9, the machines are the biggest energy consumers at the
factory.
If one looks at the purchase price and consumption of a moulding machine, the purchase
price of a moulding machine is lower than the energy costs of operating the machine over
its working life. Energy-saving machines will save money in the long term. It is therefore
not the purchase price that should be the top priority when purchasing a new machine,
but rather the consumption or ‘total cost of ownership’.
The following paragraphs describe the properties of the different drive concepts.
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Hydraulic
The hydraulic drive is the oldest concept in terms of technical development.
The older systems have a single hydraulic pump with a high capacity and thus a high
energy consumption. Continuous pressure is supplied by a pump so that the system can
be used at any time. As a result, the electric motor is continually loaded. This results in a
high no-load.
In recent decades, multiple energy-saving pumps have been used in the hydraulic
systems in combination with pressure regulating valves. With no-load, the system is
provided with pressure by the smallest pump. Because multiple pumps are used, energy
savings can be achieved of up to approximately 30 per cent compared to the older
system with its single pump. These new, more economical hydraulic systems are
generally used in most modern machines. The conversion of an older existing machine
may be a worthwhile consideration.
Electrical
Fully electrically driven injection moulding machines have been on the market for some
time now. Servo motors are used to open and close the mould.
Greater energy efficiency is achieved by eliminating the no-load losses. These losses are
absent because continuous pressure does not have to be maintained anywhere within
the system. Direct transmission is used for fully electrical machines.
The initial cost of an electrically driven machine is generally higher than a hydraulic
machine. However, the energy savings can make an electrically driven machine
financially attractive in the long term.
Besides energy savings there are also the following advantages:
• No hydraulic oil present that can soil the product
• Lower maintenance costs. No storage, replenishment, drainage, etc. necessary for
hydraulic oil
• Less susceptible to failure
• No start-up delay
• Less noise
• Lower water consumption
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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Hybrid
The advantages of both techniques are applied in hybrid machines.
Most hybrid machines have a hydraulic pump for clamping the mould. Servo motors are
used to drive the screw.
Hybrid machines are generally less expensive to buy than fully electrical machines. They
are, however, not as energy efficient. This may change in the future because this
technique is still seeing significant advances in applied technology.
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4. Energy measures
The energy consumption per kilogram of end product can be calculated for each plant.
The literature provides the relevant data in Figure 10 for the examined production
process in relation to energy consumption per kilogram.
There is no major difference between injection and extrusion moulding. The average
consumption per kWh/kg barely differs.
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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Specific energy consumption however can differ quite significantly from plant to plant.
Consumption can even be higher than the values given in the figures below, but savings
are usually then possible.
Figure 10 Specific energy consumption for some plastic processes from the
literature
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Extrusion
The following list can be taken into account in order to reduce energy consumption in
extrusion processes:
Injection moulding
The following list can be taken into account in order to reduce energy consumption in
injection moulding processes:
• Make sure the parameters for the object being produced are optimal
• Is the process stable?
• Is the mould periodically cleaned?
• Optimize the cycle time. Determine if the cycle time can be reduced.
• Is the current installation still suitable for the product being manufactured?
• Are procedures in place for switching off energy consumers during longer duration
production stops?
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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BLOW MOULDING
The energy-saving measures described above are applicable to blow moulding. Blow
moulding is after all a derivative of extrusion or injection moulding.
5. Practical examples
Introduction
There are various manufacturers supplying frequency controllers on the market to limit
the power consumption of moulding machines.
The plastics plant discussed in this case has two frequency controllers assembled on a
moulding machine.
Current situation
The moulding machines are set up with a 90kW motor not provided with frequency
controller.
Proposal
The proposal is to fit the machine with a frequency controller to reduce power
consumption.
Figure 11 shows the difference between the power consumption of a moulding machine
with and without frequency controller. During the whole moulding cycle, there is better
energy efficiency when the moulding machine is fitted with a frequency converter.
In total the cycle for manufacturing the product takes 71 seconds. The screwing process
and cooling stage are not shown.
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The blue line shows the motor power consumption without frequency controller. The
magenta line shows the motor power consumption with frequency controller.
When the set point varies from 100 per cent, it means that the oil pressure of the pumps
is excessive in relation to the required pressure in the current situation. Surplus oil will go
back to the tank without being used. A frequency controller will control the oil pressure of
the pumps according to the given set point. Hence, no excess oil pressure is produced
and energy will be saved.
During the closing of the mould, the full power of the pumps is required to generate
sufficient pressure in a short time. The pumps now operate at full power. The graph
shows that the power consumption is just about equal for both driving mechanisms. No
energy saving is possible here.
The biggest energy saving can be achieved during the holding and ejection processes.
During the mould’s holding process, no machine activity is required. Pump pressure is
only needed to keep the mould closed. Hence, the motor speed can be decreased which
results in lower energy consumption.
In the current situation, the pumps are switched on too early in the ejection process.
The ejection of the product only takes place when the robot has given a command for
this. This means the power consumption of the pumps is greater than needed. A
frequency controller keeps the pumps at idling speed until they receive a command. The
speed of the motor is then increased to the speed required for the removal of the product.
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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Estimated savings
When a frequency controller is used, savings can rise to 15.6 kW over the whole cycle.
This halves the power consumption.
Estimated investment
The investment and installation cost of a 90 kW Variable Speed Drive is around EUR
20,000. Depending on the number of running hours, the payback time on this investment
can be as low as two years.
Introduction
The energy consumption of production machines in the plastics industry amounts to 60
per cent of total energy consumption. The energy consumption of different machines was
measured during an energy scan at an injection moulding plant. The most important
parameters are the power consumption (in kW) and the product produced (in kg/hour)
per machine. Measurements were recorded for a total of 16 machines of different sizes.
See Figure 12.
Measurement results
The following table shows the measurements
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Specific consumption
Figure 13 shows the specific consumption of the machines measured. It can be seen by
the measurement values that the smaller machines have higher specific consumption.
The large machines have average specific consumption lower than 1.2 kWh/kg. If this
value is compared with the literature shown in Figure 10, this value falls within the range
of the literature.
However, consumption when producing smaller parts is inefficient. We advised the use of
smaller machines or applying multi-component injection moulding. The company will take
this advice into account when ordering new moulds but decided not to replace the
existing ones. It must be mentioned that a new mould is expensive and does not pay for
itself with the reduction of energy costs.
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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Introduction
The plastics plant discussed in this case mainly produces plastic components for the
automobile industry and housings for electronic parts. These parts are produced by
injection moulding. Parts produced range from a few grams to 1.5 kg.
Current situation
The factory has a 22 kW cold water pump. This cold water pump is designed for the total
production capacity. Normally some 65 per cent of the production capacity is utilized. The
pump always operates at its full flow rate and maximum speed irrespective of the
production capacity and cooling demand. The pressure and flow rate are manually
regulated using a valve.
Proposal
The proposal is to fit the pump with a frequency controller and control the speed based
on the pressure in the pipe.
When more production machines are switched on, the pressure in the pipe will decrease.
The pressure decrease in the pipe causes the frequency controller to increase the speed
of the pump until the set point is reached. This system means the power consumption of
the pump depends on the cooling demand.
Estimated savings
To calculate the saving, it is assumed that during normal operation 65 per cent of the
production machines are running, and as a result 65 per cent of the cooling demand is
needed.
The savings are calculated as follows:
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Estimated investment
The investment sum includes the costs of a frequency controller, a pressure sensor, and
installation. The costs are subdivided as follows:
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Application Guide for Plastics Industry
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6. Conclusion
Different production processes are used in the plastics industry. The most
common are extrusion, injection moulding, and blow moulding. These
processes are very similar to each other. The extrusion and injection moulding
processes consist mainly of the melting of plastic pellets and the pressing of
this mass into a certain shape using a mould. With blow moulding, an already
produced shape is blown by compressed air in a mould to form the final desired
shape.
Specific energy consumption can be associated with these processes. This is
the average consumption per kWh/kg. The specific consumption per process is
shown in Figure 10. The specific consumption can differ from plant to plant.
This depends on various factors.
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References
[1] Fedichem press release — 1 October 2007
[2] Recipe, 2006; Low Energy Plastic Processing; project financed by the
European Commission, www.eurecipe.com
[3] British Plastics Federation et al, 1999; Energy in Plastic processing, a
practical guide, UK good practice guide 292
(http://www.tangram.co.uk/TI-Energy_in_Plastics_Processing_
(GPG292).pdf)
[4] Department of Science Technology and Environment of Ho Chi Minh
City, 2002; Energy and Environment Management in the plastic forming
industry of Ho Chi Minh; study financed by ADEME, France
[5] Tangram, 2001; Energy efficiency in plastics processing, practical
worksheets for industry; www.tangram.co.uk
[6] NRG Control. SyncroSpeed Saves at Southend
[7] PlasticsEurope, WG Market Research & Statistics
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