Johannes Böhner

RFID Integrated Adaption of Manufacturing Execution Systems for Energy Efficient Production

An emerging challenge for manufacturing companies is to increase the energy efficiency of their manufacturing systems in order to reduce both energy costs and overall environmental impact. Modern manufacturing execution systems must cope with the new requirements of sustainable manufacturing in addition to the conventional focus on production management. This approach shows how the digital network of manufacturing execution systems can be used to eliminate non-value adding energy consumption in the manufacturing system. Therefore, an integrated use of workstation-related information from production schedules as well as the availability of product, operator and manufacturing equipment was developed. In particular, the advantages of the radio frequency identification technology is considered, as a decentralized information source for the manufacturing execution system for product and operator induced idle and stand-by times of production machinery.

Development of a Procedure for Energy Efficiency Evaluation and Improvement of Production Machinery

A major and growing challenge for manufacturing companies is to increase the energy efficiency of their production machinery in order to reduce both their energy costs and their overall environmental impact. Established approaches either focus on optimizing the base line energy consumption of auxiliary production infrastructure, or directly target the optimization of value creating processes like special machine tools. In practice, heterogeneous machinery in operation requires a procedure to prioritize which machine should be improved first. Hence a decision support procedure based on multiple criteria was developed and implemented during a use case. This system combines machine data, production process information and the evaluation of expert knowledge and energy consumption measurements.

Analyzing the active power of variable frequency drives in manufacturing plants

In multi-axis machining centers the individual operating loads of axis and spindle drives are often unknown. Especially in serial production, drive systems are oversized including electric motors, frequency inverters and shaft drives. But also in special plant engineering, where multiple drive systems are connected to one intermediate circuit, the individual operating loads cannot be assessed. Subsequently, performance, operating points and energy efficiency are suboptimal. Economic disadvantages, such as the necessity of higher investments and increased operational costs, are associated. Therefore an approach to active power measurement behind the frequency inverter to separate the power consumption profiles of spindle and axis drives is necessary. In this paper two systems for an active power measurement for variable frequency drives are discussed. One of them has been developed by the authors themselves with the advantage of lower cost compared to commercially available systems. The systems were analyzed for performance, accuracy, installation effort and costs. The investigated active power measurement systems provide basic data for an optimal dimensioning of drive systems for industrial equipment manufacturers.

Optimizing production plants with variable frequency drives

In multi-axis machining centers the individual operating loads of axis and spindle drives are often unknown. Especially in serial production, drive systems are oversized including electric motors, frequency inverters and shaft drives. But also in special plant engineering, where multiple drive systems are connected to one intermediate circuit, the individual operating loads cannot be assessed. Subsequently, performance, operating points and energy efficiency are suboptimal. Economic disadvantages, such as the necessity of higher investments and increased operational costs, are associated. Therefore an approach to active power measurement behind the frequency inverter to separate the power consumption profiles of spindle and axis drives is necessary. In this paper two systems for an active power measurement for variable frequency drives are discussed. One of them has been developed by the authors themselves with the advantage of lower cost compared to commercially available systems. The systems were analyzed for performance, accuracy, installation effort and costs. The investigated active power measurement systems provide basic data for an optimal dimensioning of drive systems for industrial equipment manufacturers.