ENERGY SAVING TUBE FINISHING MACHINE
“Why having a machine always running when we know there are several periods where the tube is not there to be polished?” This was the question raised by Telmo Silva, NS production manager.
Even in cases where the machines are working 2 or even 3 shifts a day, we know that the tubes are not fed continuously. There are always moments where the abrasive belts motor, the main engine on the machine, is running and the tube finishing operation is not being done. “Besides energy waste we’ll find an higher consumption of parts such as bearings, rubber rollers and v-belts”, explained Telmo Silva.
Reducing energy costs and spare parts consumption was the target launched, and then, in great part developed by the engineer.
For the ML Tube Finishing Machines equipped with PLC, the program is now developed in a way that only when the tube is approaching the abrasive belts, the main motor is switched on. “More, if the machine is left operating and for a period of 5 minutes there is not a tube detected all motors will be automatically switched off.” pointed Telmo Silva.
A general evaluation on ML users, carried out by the production team, estimates that with this step, a energy saving up to 30% is now achieved.
