A novel method for energy efficiency evaluation to support efficient machine tool selection

Increasing energy price and emission limitations are new challenges faced by manufacturers; above half of their energy consumption is attributed to the electricity consumption of machine tools (MT), highlighting the need for manufacturers to select highly efficient MT. However, due to the unavailability of cutting tests and limited information in procurement stage, it is difficult to apply existing methods to evaluate the energy efficiency of MT options to support efficient MT selection. To address this problem, an energy efficiency model characterizing the relationship among energy efficiency, MT-related factors and workpiece-related factors is established to bridge the knowledge gap and a novel method without any cutting tests is developed including three steps: (i) modelling MT-related factors of each MT option; (ii) modelling workpiece-related factors of expected tasks; (iii) energy efficiency calculation and comparison. Furthermore, a selection example of gear-hobbing machine illustrates the application of the proposed method, reducing 2.88E+06 kJ energy consumption per selected MT per year. This study enables manufacturers to select MT for energy efficiency maximisation with the consideration of expected tasks in procurement stage.