Investigation into Energy Efficiency of Outdated Cutting Machine Tools and Identification of Improvement Potentials to Promote Sustainability

Cutting machine tools have a significant impact on manufacturing and sustainability. There exist a large number of outdated cutting machine tools especially in developing and emerging countries which are still taking a considerable share in global value creation. Furthermore, an increasing trend in field of reuse, retrofitting and upgrading can be observed. For Life-Cycle-Assessment and analyses of end-of-life behavior of such machine tools in context of sustainability, reliable values for energy consumption and machining efficiency under realistic machining conditions are indispensable. In the present paper the energy consumption and machining efficiency of an exemplary outdated milling machine have been measured and analyzed under consideration of different influences such as process parameter, machining material and ratio of prim time to secondary time. Additionally a comparison between a newer and the outdated milling machine has been carried out in order to identify and quantify possible improvement potentials of outdated machine tool concerning energy consumption and machining efficiency. Based on obtained results more accurate and realistic decision can be made by enterprises who aim to promote sustainable manufacturing.