Improving energy effieciency of pneumatic handling systems
Research Task/Objectives
Pneumatic handling systems are widely used in the field of industrial automation. Therefore pneumatic drives realize demanding motion tasks, but often cause relatively high energy costs.
Due to this fact, the research goal is to analyze and improve the energetic behavior of
these systems in a systematic way. The energetic analysis is based on the first and second law of thermodynamics. In this process, the distribution of energy flows within the system, energy losses as well as consumers with high energy demand have to be considered. To reduce the energy consumption of pneumatic handling systems, different energy saving measures can be used.
Approach/Results
First, an experimental and simulation based testing of the energetic behavior of the sample machines is done. Potential energy savings will be detected by analyzing the energy distribution and energy losses. Knowing these potentials, suitable energy saving
measures can be selected and implemented. After the implementation of two energy saving measures at a single drive, energy savings of about 55 % could be verified experimentally. For one of the handling systems, six drives were modified, showing overall savings of about 23 % for the entire machine. Based on these results, different guidelines for the efficient designing of handling systems were derived.
Resulting energy savings using saving measures on a single drive and multi-axis system
| The contribution is based on the project "Improvement of the Energy Efficiency of Pneumatic Handling Systems" initiated and financed by the Forschungsfonds Fluidtechnik within VDMA (FKM No. 702520). |