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Procedia CIRP 29 (2015) 40 44

The 22nd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering

Method for increasing energy efficiency in flexible manufacturing systems:

A case study
Hugo M. B. de Carvalhoa,b*, Jefferson de Oliveira Gomesb
b

a
Renault of Brazil, Av. Renault, 1300, So Jose do Pinhais, 83070-970, Brazil
Technological Institute of Aeronautics, Praa Marechal Eduardo Gomes, 50 Vila das Accias, So Jos dos Campos, 12.228-970, Brazil

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 (41) 9107-1312. E-mail address: hugombc@hotmail.com

Abstract
In manufacturing systems, machines have been operated for years or decades without the concept of electrical energy efficiency, which has
resulted in high manufacturing costs. In order to raise competitiveness by reducing energy costs, a method for systematically increasing energy
efficiency is needed. This paper presents a new method to increase the energy efficiency of machine tools and equipment with computer
numerical control (CNC) or a programmable logic controller (PLC). This new method was validated through application to three flexible
manufacturing systems in the automotive machining industry as a case study.

2015 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published by Elsevier
Elsevier B.V.
B.V.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the International Scientific Committee of the Conference 22nd CIRP conference on Life Cycle
Engineering.under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 22nd CIRP conference on Life Cycle Engineering
Peer-review
Keywords: manufacturing system; energy efficiency; electricity; energy; CNC machine tool

1. Introduction
Filippi and Ippolito [1] and Avram and Xirouchakis [2] were
some of the first to study energy efficiency in machine tools
with numerical control (NC). They compared data from 10
different NC machine tools involved in various operations.
They concluded that the installed capacity was never fully
utilized because the average power was less than half of the
power available; only 60% of the total time was spent on
production. Studies on the energy efficiency of flexible
manufacturing systems for machining processes are necessary
to define the input and output of the system in terms of useful
energy. Several studies have attempted to link machining and
environmental impacts. The first ones emphasising the
importance of this relationship appeared in the early 1990s [3,
4]. Since then, new terms such as green machining have
gained prominence in the field of computer numerical control
(CNC) machine tools and manufacturing processes. Energy
efficiency is achieved by streamlining useful energy. A
review of recent literature shows efforts being made to
increase energy efficiency in the machine tool industry. For
example, Weinert et al. [5] investigated reducing the cutting

fluid used during the machining process. Rangarajan and

Dornfeld [7] proposed a tool path and workpiece preparation
method based on energy efficiency. Mori et al. [6] explored
the monitoring of energy consumption by machine tools. Diaz
et al. [8] investigated the reuse of electrical energy from a
spindle. Neugebauer et al. [9] compared different drilling
processes with different cutting tools and material removal
rates. Suggestions to increase the energy efficiency of
machining processes include turning some components of the
machine off and on via NC or a programmable logic
controller (PLC) [6, 10, 13], redefining the parameters of
cutting tools to reduce the machining time [6, 11, 12],
redefining the cutting strategy for the trajectory and path of
the cutting tool [10], changing devices of low-performance
machines for equipment with higher performance [10, 13],
and setting machine parameters to reduce consumption (e.g.
axis and spindle acceleration) [10].
For all five suggestions, examples include applications to
cutting parameters, cutting strategies, and machine parameters
which decrease the acceleration along the axes. Li et al. [13]
showed the possibility of reducing the fixed energy
consumption for different manufacturing processes for

2212-8271 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 22nd CIRP conference on Life Cycle Engineering
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2015.02.196

Hugo M.B. de Carvalho and Jefferson de Oliveira Gomes / Procedia CIRP 29 (2015) 40 44

different machine states.

There are examples of increasing the energy efficiency by
switching off and restarting the equipment or equipment parts
during productive and non-productive times and how to
implement this approach. Turning equipment on and off
reduces the electrical energy consumption when the machine
is in standby mode or in operation. This is true even when the
equipment is responsible for a significant portion of the
energy consumption of a manufacturing system. This
approach has mainly focused on reducing the energy
consumption of machine tools. This paper proposes a
systematic method applicable not only to machine tools but
also to any equipment in a manufacturing system with a PLC.
The goal was to develop and apply the method to a
manufacturing system. The proposed method improves on the
work by Li et al. [13] to reduce the fixed power of machine
tools.
1.1. Material
The electrical energy consumed by a machine is measured
using measuring equipment. The measuring equipment is
installed at the entrance of CNC machines and equipment.
This research used the RE6000 portable power analyser
(EMBRASUL) as the measuring equipment; this is shown in
Fig. 1.

Fig. 2. Electricity consumption of CNC machine tool during machining.

2. Method
For current manufacturing systems, the development of a
method to increase energy efficiency is essential to
minimizing the impact of the rising costs of electricity.
Industries with manufacturing systems which are more than
10 years old are common. Hence, there are machines and
equipment that were designed without concern for energy
efficiency, which wastes electricity. In order to avoid having
to invest in more energy-efficient new machinery, a
systematic method was developed in this study to improve
energy efficiency in manufacturing systems with new or old
machinery, which is presented in Fig. 3.

Fig. 1. Measuring equipment inside machining centre.

The power analyser stores data on the active power,

reactive power, and effective power measured at intervals of
up to hundredths of a second. Energy metering and monitoring
is essential to obtaining authentic information from each
individual machine, and the sample rate should be less than
0.5 s [13]. Data are stored in a file which can be transferred to
a computer via a network cable. Data are obtained by a
software program within the measuring equipment and later
opened in a spreadsheet, as shown in Fig. 2.
After the power analyser is installed, the electrical energy
consumption of each function is measured by programming
the PLC. A function is a device which consumes electrical
energy and executes an action. Examples include an electrical
motor or electrical resistance. With the PLC, it is possible to
switch the functionality of sub-components on or off to adjust
the energy consumption.

Fig. 3. Method to increase energy efficiency of equipment in manufacturing

system.

The first step is to measure the energy consumption of the

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Hugo M.B. de Carvalho and Jefferson de Oliveira Gomes / Procedia CIRP 29 (2015) 40 44

equipment in the manufacturing system. After the machine or

equipment is selected, the power consumption needs to be
measured over a period of time, and the energy consumption
and time of each step in the process need to be recorded. The
energy consumption must be measured by dividing the
equipment into functions. Once the functions of the
equipment are defined, the next step is to analyse each
function. If a function can be turned off at any time, the
equipment is reprogrammed. If the function cannot be turned
off at any time, it is checked to determine if the functionality
can be modified in order to reduce consumption. If either of
the above two conditions can be met, the functionality is
turned off or modified. The equipment is measured to define
the gain in energy efficiency. This cycle of analysis and
reprogramming must be carried out for all equipment in a
manufacturing system. It is mainly necessary for application
to flexible manufacturing systems which are heavily
automated. All of the reprogramming is done with the PLC or
NC of the machine and must be performed by the
maintenance and process engineering team. A process
engineer is needed to analyse the impact of this change in the
quality of the manufactured product and machine
maintenance. This method also enables gains without
investment because only the time spent programming the PLC
or NC is required for application. This method enables the
review of all functions of all equipment of a manufacturing
system. Each function is measured with the measurement
equipment, and the PLC of the machine is reprogrammed.
Thus, each function is switched off for a new measurement.
The difference is the energy consumption of the analysed
function.

Fig. 4. Method applied to conveyor in manufacturing system.

The conveyor analysed work for only 2 min per shift after
the reprogramming, and the energy consumption was reduced
by 90%, as shown in Fig. 5.

3. Case Study
3.1. Method to increase energy efficiency in transport
equipment
As an example, this method was applied to the conveyor of
different flexible manufacturing systems. The conveyor
transports a piece from one operation to another in a discrete
manufacturing system. However, the design of the conveyor
does not provide energy efficiency. Normally, these systems
remain on even without a piece to transport during production
breaks or inactive periods. Each PLC controls two to five
electrical motors. The measurement was performed at the
entrance of the PLC. The systematic method reduced power
during inactivity by approximately 1000 W. This PLC
controlled two conveyors, and the method was initially
applied to one conveyor. The initial consumption was
measured, and the executed functions were identified. Then,
the selected function was checked to verify whether or not it
can be programmed to automatically turn on and off (e.g.
when there is no piece entering or no manual request for the
part). Finally, the electrical energy consumption of the
conveyor with the programming changes was measured, as
shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 5. Power consumption by conveyor after analysis and reprogramming.

3.2. Method to increase energy efficiency in machines with

PLC only
The method was also applied to multiple washing
machines of different flexible manufacturing systems. The
method to increase energy efficiency was applied to a
washing machine, and then it was replicated for another
washing machine. The function of the washing machine in a
manufacturing system is to clean a piece before assembly.
The washing machine does not have an NC, only a PLC. The
washing machine performs external washing, vacuum drying,
and hot air drying, as shown in Fig. 6. The washing machine
has 19 different stations with different functions, such as
external washing with high pressure, internal washing with a
robot, the vacuum station, and the dry hot air station. This is
the reason for the high power consumption of the washing
machine.

Hugo M.B. de Carvalho and Jefferson de Oliveira Gomes / Procedia CIRP 29 (2015) 40 44

Fig. 8. Power consumption by part before method was applied to washing

machine.

The same methodology was applied to five different

washing machines in three flexible manufacturing systems for
the automotive industry. Application of the method to
systematically reducing the electrical energy consumption has
resulted in more than 200 actions so far.
Fig. 6. Method applied to washing machine of pieces.

The first function analysed for the washing machine was

the vacuum drying. This station in the machine continues to
operate throughout the process. Reprogramming the washing
machine reduced consumption by 18% when there is no part
to clean.
The initial measured electrical power consumption of the
washing machine was 1824 Wh/cycle. After the functions of
the washing machine were reprogrammed, the consumption
was reduced to 1494 Wh/cycle. The vacuum drying function
was reprogrammed with the PLC. When there is no part in the
dry vacuum station, the washing machine turns it off. Before
that, the power of the washing machine reached 200 kW
during a working cycle, as shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7. Power consumption by part before method was applied to washing

machine.

After the systematic method was applied and the PLC was
reprogrammed, the maximum power reached 180 kW, as
shown in Fig. 8.

4. Conclusion
The proposed method to systematically increase energy
efficiency makes it possible to reduce power consumption
during standby mode. The method reduced the electrical
energy consumptions of the conveyer, washing machine, and
central filter in standby mode by 83%, 12.5%, and 1%
respectively. This methodology was applied to CNC machines
and increased their energy efficiency. Power consumption
during standby mode does not add value to the manufactured
product and must be considered waste because the machine
consumes energy without performing any functions or steps in
the production process. If a flexible manufacturing system is
in idle mode for 2 h/day for 48 productive weeks, there are
480 h/year of electricity consumption without production.
These 480 h are equivalent to 20 days of 24 h production.
This represents 75% of the production in 1 month for 1 year.
In the literature, there has been no analysis of the energy
consumption for manufacturing systems or application of a
method to increase the energy efficiency of flexible
manufacturing systems.
The proposed method can reduce the electrical energy
consumption during non-productive and productive times
through reprogramming of the PLC for any equipment. This
way, the equipment can recognize when a function can be
switched off without needing to know how long this situation
will hold. For example, this situation may occur from the
absence of a part due to failure in the previous operation.
Acknowledgements
This research is part of a PhD thesis for the Technological
Institute of Aeronautics (ITA). The research was supported
and carried out with the manufacturing systems at Renault of
Brazil.

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