We have developed an innovative solution that helps manufacturing SMEs to meet the challenges of energy efficiency. It provides affordable system of electric energy sensors connected with a scheduling system, witch enables to allocate electricity data to products, production tasks, production steps and detect anomalies and hot spots.
The HOT_SENSE project, aimed at supporting the sustainable development transition in the manufacturing SME sector, has been successfully completed! Thanks to EU funding, we have developed an innovative solution that helps such companies meet the challenges of energy efficiency and competitiveness.
Manufacturing SMEs face significant difficulties in transitioning to more sustainable operations, especially in terms of energy consumption management. For example, the injection moulding process, which we addressed in the project, is energy-intensive, and the lack of accurate data on energy consumption (for individual batches, products or machines) leads to inefficiency, higher costs and an increased carbon footprint. In addition, without accurate historical data, the precision of quotations is reduced, which negatively affects competitiveness.
To meet these challenges, in the HOT_SENSE project we implemented an automated system for allocating energy consumption and detecting so-called ‘hotspots’ within our MeMOM platform.
• We installed 5 electricity sensors on injection nests (injection moulding machine with thermoregulator, dryer and loader). We managed to reduce the cost of installing a single sensor to around 200 euros.
• We developed and integrated cloud components for collecting and allocating data on electricity consumption (by product, production task and even production step)and for data analysis and visualisation.
• We identified key electricity consumption hotspots in the production processes we analysed as part of the validation.
• We calculated the carbon footprint of the products covered by the validation resulting from electricity consumption.
See a video showing the HOT_SENSE project idea: video.
After a successful pilot, our partner plans to scale the solution to its entire machine park by installing sensors on the remaining injection moulding machines and possibly also on peripheral devices such as dryers, chargers and other machines.
Thanks to our solution, it is possible to reduce electricity costs by detecting any anomalies and increasing the accuracy of customer order pricing.
The project HOT_SENSE has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the GA 101058613. This publication reflects only our view. The European Commission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information therein.
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