Keeping five steps ahead of energy efficiency
In our 24/7 economy and as Governments and industries battle with our thirst for ever increasing supplies of energy, the global automation specialist, SMC, commits to work in partnership with its customers to drive energy efficiency and reduce wastage.
Focused on SMC’s five cornerstones of efficiency, customers can embrace sustainable policies for their businesses, reduce their carbon footprint and strengthen brand identity. This new approach can also help companies comply with ISO standards for energy management systems.
That’s why SMC has introduced five simple steps to ‘Energise your Efficiency’ focusing on how collectively we can Generate, Recover, Monitor or Use energy in the best way and Think efficient.
As a spokesperson from SMC explained: “We recognise how important energy efficiency is for our customers, and more importantly the future of our planet. With this campaign we want to empower people to do the same with less energy, viewing energy not as a fixed cost, but as a cost that can be managed to the company’s benefit.”
The first cornerstone, highlights how the most efficient energy is that which is not consumed. “We need to find ways to avoid creating more energy than what we need, and finding ways to generate sufficient energy to maintain performance,” explains the SMC spokesperson.
There are simple changes that can be adopted to make a huge difference, such as minimising or cutting off the pressure in compressed air systems, boosting force only at critical points or making vacuum generation intermittent.
Secondly, SMC focuses on the importance of recovering energy; whether that’s at the point of generation by recovering heat to warm water or the plant or at the point of usage by reusing the released air of pneumatic actuators. SMC spokesperson adds: “In the same way that goods are recycled in our homes, we can achieve the same in industrial processes.”
Every energy management should be led by monitoring. Adding switches or other monitoring systems to processes will drive greater awareness of energy consumption and give greater control on how and when it’s used. It will also detect mismatches or unexpected waste, giving the visibility to further improve performance.
Step four aims to encourage customers to use only what’s necessary. By designing, selecting and assembling the correct components operators can transform energy into power and make the most from it.
And finally, SMC encourages people to think efficient. When combined, taking a more proactive approach to energy efficiency will drive competitiveness, with the optimisation of resources increasing productivity and reducing costs.
The SMC spokesperson concludes: “We all have a responsibility to the planet to make sure that energy efficiency is at the top of our agenda. Finding more sustainable ways to effect operations will reduce global energy demand and CO2 emissions by following these simple steps, customers can drive efficiencies in their plant, reduce wastage and make a real difference to the future of production and the world.”
For more information about SMC’s range of energy efficient products please visit www.smc.eu
1 May 2017
