Methodology for planning and operating energy-efficient production systems

Planning and operating energy-efficient production systems require detailed knowledge on the energy consumption behaviour of their components, energy consumption of production processes, and methods to evaluate design variants. In this paper, the EnergyBlocks methodology for accurate energy consumption prediction is introduced. The methodology is based on the representation of production operations as segments of specific energy consumption for each operating state of the production equipment. Modelling any process chain is possible by arranging the segments according to the production programme. The application of the methodology is demonstrated on the manufacturing of a swash plate expander. (C) 2011 CIRP.