YASKAWA Slovenia presented new concepts for energy savings, which bundle a range of individual measures with optimal robot design, intelligent shut down concepts and energy recovery.
The result is up to 25% energy savings. The energy requirements of a robot are determined not only by the design of the manipulator, but also the application, controller and system layout. The more varied the individual parameters, the greater the scope for potential savings. Even in isolation, intelligent shut down concepts during breaks in operation, for example at weekends, can result in up to 15% of energy savings by shutting down the systems in an orderly manner.
The robot design offers even greater potential savings: YASKAWA has observed that in a typical body production line 40% of all robots could be selected at least one size smaller resulting in an energy saving of 8%. Solutions from YASKAWA allow greater robot density and faster cycle times per cell using smaller robots. Further energy savings can be obtained by using lightweight robots. Selecting a smaller robot not only results in energy savings, but also increases cycle times. For example, by replacing a 250 kg robot with an 80 kg robot that has been designed for the specific application, up to 25% energy savings and a 20% reduction in cycle time can be achieved.
Since May 2012 YASKAWA is a partner in the cross-industry sustainability initiative “Blue Competence” by VDMA.