Save and prosper

As more and more manufacturers look to reducing costs and producing goods in the most efficient way possible, we are seeing an almost unprecedented rise in the levels of industrial automation.

And this movement of products and components by machinery rather than huge numbers of people means that it's boom time for automation suppliers.

The machinery is usually a mix of highly-advanced control hardware such as PCs, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and drives, with more prosaic engineering components such as gearboxes, chains, rods and belts at the sharp end.

The energy used in large plant can be huge, and consequently the savings can be enormous, even when small efficiencies are made.

For example, Guy Simms,

energy optimisation manager, estimates that as much as 30MW of power could be saved across the company's Port Talbot plant in South Wales by installing variable speed drives (VSDs) in a number of application areas.

When pumps or fans are used only at the load they need to run, savings can be made. And something like a 20 per cent reduction in speed can save around 50 per cent of the energy costs.