Methodology for process-independent energetic assessment of machine tools

Energy-labels draw user's attention to energy efficiency and thus they force the manufacturers to reduce the energy consumption of their products. This paper focuses on the large variety of metal-cutting machine tools that represents a challenge to find out an evaluation basis for a unique energy-label. For this reason, the process-independent energy consumption has been compared to machine properties and parameters. The data-base contains measured values and has been extended by values from the literature. Concerning a large number of various machining centers for milling operations the statistical analysis shows the influence of the different machine tool characteristics and parameters to the energy consumption. Concluding, an evaluation basis is presented and the applicability on energy-labels is discussed.