Challenge

To reduce the inconsistent energy consumption of a complex laser cutting machine.

Background

LCA Group is a major supplier of electrical, control and instrumentation engineering solutions throughout the UK and overseas. Within its manufacturing division, LCA’s investment in automation enables the company to produce bespoke, one-off designs and batch projects right the way through to high-volume production line manufacturing.

The company wanted to measure a complex laser cutting process and turned to AMRC Cymru for support through its Flintshire sustainable decarbonised future (FAST) programme, which seeks to unlock the region’s potential to support green growth across a number of work streams including energy mapping, decarbonisation roadmaps and knowledge transfer.

FAST targeted several different industries within Flintshire, to cover a representative cross section, as well as different sized companies. It was funded through £562,133 of Flintshire County Council's UK Shared Prosperity Fund allocation from the UK government.

Innovation

The research team for the FAST programme connected an energy monitoring sensor to the complex laser cutting machine, which operates Monday to Thursday, from 7am to 3.45pm, and on Fridays from 7am to 12pm. The machine consumes high energy during the intermittent laser cutting process, which occurs for short durations within working hours, while remaining idle for the rest of the time.

Varying power consumption was observed during idle states, contributing to inconsistencies. After discussion with the LCA Group, it was concluded that the company follows two types of shutdown procedures, resulting in inconsistencies.

A detailed analysis of the power consumption profiles for non-working hours demonstrated how the different shutdown procedures were impacting upon important KPI parameters, such as energy consumption, cost and associated emissions.

Result

The work revealed the potential for optimisation if standardised shutdown procedures are followed by the company. Based on the total consumption, a suitable operating profile was recommended for non-working hours of the machine, which would save 35 per cent of its energy consumption, as well as associated costs and emissions.

Impact

With standardised and optimised shut down procedures, the LCA Group will be able to make a 35 per cent reduction in energy use, reducing the cost of non-working-hours operation from £635 to roughly £435 across a six month period, with significant reduction in emissions as well.