Impact of Energy Measurements in Machining Operations

Over the past years, institutions in general are increasingly interested and involved in sustainability and social responsibility. In addition, social and political pressures have led to the creation of new regulations and policies that support new business opportunities around global sustainability. Considering sustainable manufacturing, a number of indicators have been proposed and currently being researched. The aim of this paper is to explore and discuss the impact of energy measurements as an indicator for sustainable manufacturing. The main question to be asked is, can energy measurement be used for optimization the machining level process. Based on energy monitoring during two Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining case studies, the significance of energy cost based on different CNC machining strategies and parameter settings is examined and discussed. The preliminary results from the energy measurements on the case studies indicate that potential cost savings in energy will be minimal in CNC operations. Based on the case studies, the potential energy savings in monetary value do not necessarily justify a company’s investment in implementing real time energy tracking technologies; however the results were limited in scope with regards measuring energy as an indicator for evaluating other performance outcomes.