The Bloomie living vases , injection moulded using recycled material by Bloom-in-Box
In our opinion , FANUC machines are at the top of the league table for energy efficiency in injection moulding .
This search led Bloom-in-Box to FANUC ’ s ROBOSHOT range , which the company claims are the most energy-efficient injection moulding machines available today .
“ In our opinion , FANUC machines are at the top of the league table for energy efficiency in injection moulding ,” says Tom Reardon .
It is well known that all-electric injection moulding machines use up to 80 % less electricity than a hydraulic machine of a comparable size . FANUC ’ s ROBOSHOT goes even further than this ; the company claims it consumes 10-15 % less energy than the average all-electric machine .
ENERGY EFFICIENT DESIGN
The ROBOSHOT ’ s best-in-category energy efficiency can largely be attributed to a combination of FANUC ’ s proprietary servo technology and smart energy recovery .
“ Rather than buying them in from a thirdparty manufacturer , we build our own servo drives , meaning they are as energy efficient as is physically possible . This also enables us to specify ser-vo drives that are the perfect match for each machine ’ s target performance , ensuring they de-liver exactly the amount of power to the motor that it needs ,” explains David Raine , ROBOSHOT sales manager UK and Ireland .
In addition , the ROBOSHOT ’ s advanced power regeneration feature enables intelligent energy recovery : when an axis decelerates , energy returns to the power source , adding to the overall savings .
“ When the equipment starts to decelerate and the motor is no longer required to drive a pro-cess , it automatically switches to being a generator , feeding the electricity that is generated back through the system to another location on the machine where it is needed ,” says Raine .
The 150T clamp force ROBOSHOT S150iA in operation at Bloom-in-Box runs at 2.9-3kW per hour for a six-second cycle ( the longer the cycle the less energy consumed ), reducing energy con-sumption by 20 % versus previous generation electric machines in the plastic processor ’ s fleet .
“ This represents a huge saving both in terms of CO2 emissions and energy bills ,” says David Reardon .
As well as being well on track to becoming carbon neutral , Bloom-in-Box is well-placed to ex-pand its garden , scoops and measures ranges and to develop new medical and PPE products .
The energy-efficient ROBOSHOT S150iA installed at Bloom-in-Box ’ s Burscough facility uses just 3kW per hour , permitting it to be powered exclusively by renewable solar energy
For further information , please visit www . fanuc . eu / uk / en
Issue 59 PECM 73