Manufacturing’s Potential for Power Savings

Efforts at energy efficiency in manufacturing can have a big impact. Sustainability efforts applied to one plant’s established equipment delivered significant energy savings. Meanwhile, the potential impact of new technology aimed at energy saving is even greater. DMG/Mori Seiki says its heat-treat alternative, grind-hardening (pictured), has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of surface hardening by 85 percent. Greg Hyatt, DMG/Mori Seiki’s chief technology officer, says the disruptions resulting from the 2011 Japan earthquake served to heighten the company’s attention to power consumption. The company’s U.S headquarters hosted an annual meeting of the Sustainable Manufacturing Partnership this summer, and Professor David Dornfeld, lab director and chair of the University of California at Berkeley’s mechanical engineering department, will speak about sustainable manufacturing at the company’s upcoming Manufacturing Days event in Davis, California in November.