Company background: Trelleborg Sealing Solutions
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions is a leading global supplier of engineered polymer seals with over 40 manufacturing facilities worldwide. The company employs 9,500 staff and has annual sales of around 1.3bn Euros (2023 data) across 50 countries.
The Energy Excellence programme is part of the company’s strong, broader commitment to sustainability, intending to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by the end of 2025 (compared to 2020 levels) and operations becoming Net Zero by the end of 2035.
The challenge: Monitoring energy consumption at a granular level
While Trelleborg already has several sustainability initiatives in place, it had no way of monitoring GHG scope 1, i.e. direct emissions from sources controlled by an organisation.
Moreover, the company required this more granular detail to supply its customers with the carbon footprint data for specific products (GHG scope 3, i.e. value chain emissions), often representing the majority of an organisation’s total greenhouse gas (GHG emissions) and energy monitoring data for the “single value stream” is a key component of this.
Trelleborg needed to be able to see energy consumption at machine level, by hour, week and month, in order to identify trends and make improvements.
“Our energy consumption was monitored at a site level via the regular energy company consumer unit but we needed to identify energy consumption per piece of equipment throughout the day.”
Neal Borg, Former General Manager at Bridgwater Facility
The solution
In October 2022, Trelleborg’s Bridgwater site conducted a trial run of CT clamps to:
• Gain a comprehensive understanding of the carbon footprint by covering the value stream (a complete manufacturing process from end to end) for one of its main products – a sealing solution that constitutes 40% of the total production at the facility.
• Improve the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) monitoring process for Computerised Numerical Control (CNC) machinery by creating charts showing energy usage and efficiencies.
Types of equipment monitored:
- Machines
- Mixers
- Ovens
- Air compressors
- Extraction systems & presses
- Building two incoming energy
- Lathes & compression pump unit in core moulding
Results of the machine energy monitoring trial at Trelleborg Bridgwater
Prioritisation of efforts
Data enabled the creation of a heatmap identifying machine types based on electricity consumption.
The Leadership team can now prioritise tasks with ease because they have the legacy and live data showing the energy consumption profile of each piece of equipment.
Unnecessary energy use
Trelleborg’s Facilities Management Team can identify unnecessary energy usage, such as equipment accidentally left switched on during the weekend.
Additional energy savings
The Operational Team is able to record savings, as they can detect when a machine is non-operational and should be switched off.
Investment justification
The Technical Team can use the data to pinpoint differences in machine consumption. This provides the information necessary to support investments for new or supplementary machinery.
Energy monitoring & carbon footprint
By comparing the energy usage of “Product Families”, such as different types of CNC machines, it can be determined which one consumes the most energy for specific “value streams” and production zones. This analysis allows better asset utilisation and decision-making regarding the carbon footprint of each product.
Key findings:
- Data on energy consumption of machines when on standby.
- Data showed that one machine (oven) accounts for around 40% of electricity on a daily basis.
- Evidence that old machinery is significantly less energy-efficient.
- RoI of the system: 4 months.
The Trelleborg project team reveal what ticked the boxes
“Trelleborg Sealing Solutions facility in Bridgwater already uses renewable electricity, so cutting our energy use won’t directly reduce our carbon footprint. However, it does help reduce our costs and, ultimately, means there will be more renewable energy available for other businesses to use, so it still has a positive knock-on impact on the environment.”
Sarah Beckers, IT Project Manager & Sustainability Controller
“Our energy-saving Excellence Program has been running since 2015, so lots of the easy-to-spot energy saving measures have already been made – such as switching to LED lighting. In order to take things further and make bigger, more impactful changes we really needed accurate data, which Pressac’s sensors provide. It’s been vital in helping us with decision-making.”
Dr. Konrad Saur, Vice President Innovation at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions
Neal Borg, Former General Manager at the Bridgwater site gives an overview of the first installation:
• Straightforward installation as no rewiring intensive installation needed.
• Sensors wrap around the incoming power cable of each machine.
• Initial installation took less than 8 hours, and adding further sensors took even less time.
Sarah Beckers, IT Project Manager & Sustainability Controller recommends CT clamps for energy monitoring for the following reasons:
• Seeing how your production facility is used, understanding how machines and sites compare against each other.
• A relatively quick fix compared to recycling elastomers, for which there is no commercially available technology yet.
• Gaining accurate data to help strengthen the case for investment in new technology.
Dinesh Sivaji, Trelleborg’s IoT Infrastructure Analyst, shares what ticked the boxes:
• The design is simple and easy to use.
• The current sensor needs no external power supply to monitor current flow.
• Very good technical support during the product security evaluation and product testing phase.
• Low cost – no ongoing charges, highly scalable. If you’re looking for a forward-thinking IoT sensor technology partner who offers flexibe, scalable and secure sensing solutions made in UK, get in touch.
If you’re looking for a forward-thinking IoT sensor technology partner who offers flexible, scalable and secure sensing solutions made in UK, get in touch with one of our team today or book a discovery call by clicking here.
