Energy efficiency measures for metal forming using hydraulic and mechanical presses

In conventional hydraulic presses only around 13 percent of the energy supplied is converted into the plastic forming of the metal. Mechanical presses achieve an overall efficiency of 13 to 30 percent. A variety of approaches aspire efficiency improvements by tuning process parameters. For the operation engineers it is a crucial task to find measures which are both technical suitable and economical promising. This paper summarizes popular tuning parameters and presents the assessment by seven experts who participated in semi-structured interviews. For hydraulic presses, the most recommend tuning parameter to be adjusted is the pressing force. For mechanical presses the continuous stroke operation is the most popular measure.