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Electrex - Monitoring system for energy efficiency in plastic industry

Last updated: Jan 17, 2025

Summary

Electrex, one of the first companies providing energy monitoring and management solutions since 1993, has acquired over the years a considerable experience and competence in helping clients achieve energy efficiency in the plastic industry.

Problem

It has been estimated that the plastics processing industry is responsible for 4% of global energy consumption. The biggest consumers at a plastics processing plant are the machines. The energy consumption of production machines in the plastics industry amounts to 60 per cent of total energy consumption.

Solution

There are several tips that may be used in order to reduce energy consumption in the extrusion or moulding machines. Some of them are related to the configuration of the machine and application of the production process:

- Optimize the speed of the extruder.

- Switch off as many energy consumers as possible when there is no production.

- Make sure the housing of the extruder is well insulated.

- Keep the melting temperature of the plastic pellets as low as possible.

- Optimize the cycle time. Determine if the cycle time can be reduced.

- Set a correct pressure for the product being formed.

etc.

Anyway the greatest benefits will derive from a monitoring system applied to the machines. Indeed, a monitoring system will permit to gather real-time and historic data on the machinery and the performance of the production process. Thus it will be possible to discover abnormal consumption and define benchmarks. The most important parameters to be monitored in the plastics processing plants are the power consumption (in kW) and the product produced (in kg/hour) per machine.

The Electrex solution for the plastics industry makes possible the acquisition, analysis and management of data not only related to the electrical energy but also regarding the machinery operating status and other energy carriers used (gas, water, steam, etc.). Indeed, the Electrex hardware equipment and software integrate in a seamless way the information coming from the different parts of the production line and match this information with the measurements coming from a constant and direct sampling of the load. In this way it possible to go beyond the main parameters provided from the moulding or extrusion machines and have a wider panorama on the production process and the energy consumption related.