Finishing - September-October 2023

14 ENERGY
On the HangOn website you can compare
the numbers of different coating cost
calculations in standard scenarios in five
standard coating lines. You can also fill in the
blanks with your own numbers if you like, to
check the facts.
A great way for validation of the numbers
your own coating facility, Törefors says.
Using the energy wisely by
increasing hanging density
No matter what, there will be energy losses
in the outer surfaces, ventilation, and heat
leakages through openings. So, Törefors says,
you need to be smart and use the energy
wisely:
– By hanging the goods in a more efficient
way you can cut your costs up to 75 percent if
you count the cost of energy consumption per
coated detail.
Hanging the goods is mainly a task that is
handled on the workshop floor, but this matter
should be addressed all the way up to
management, according to Petter Törefors.
Because the question of hanging density
makes a difference, not only on reducing costs
and increasing profit, but it definitely makes a
difference in reducing energy consumption
and thereby contributing to a greener coating
industry.
You can actually cut costs up to 48 percent
on the coating process as a whole, going from
0,28 kWh per coated product down to 0,07
kWh per coated product if you choose to
increase the hanging density. This is really
important for the decision makers to
understand, Törefors says.
A Green Effect with enormous
hidden potential
So, lets juggle a few more numbers. A
medium sized automatic coating line with a
conveyor speed of 2 metres per minute and a
conveyor length of 293 metres and an object
size of 3000 x 600 x 1500 mm (LxWxH) that
transports about 850 kg goods per hour uses
about 470 kWh per hour. Of this the pretreatment
uses about 200 kWh, the drying
oven about 85 kWh, the powder application
around 40 kWh and the curing oven 145
kWh.
Running the coating line with HQC-hanging
and a density of 3 550 kg per hour of painted
goods instead, it would use 580 kWh per
hour.
A full year of running a medium sized
coating line in 3-shift with daisy-chain
hanging, amounts to about 2,5 million kWh
per year. With dense HQC-hanging you can
paint the same amount of goods while using
about 800 000 kWh per year, Törefors says.
Numbers that make a huge difference on
the last line of accounting with energy prices
skyrocketing all over Europe.
– The energy saved by this would be
enough to supply 170 average EU households
with energy for a whole year.
And if you take this further to a global
scale, there is an enormous hidden potential to
save energy and make the coating industry
greener.
This is what we at HangOn call the double
Green Effect, Törefors says.
Real numbers in real life
Realizing that the numbers might sound
overly positive, Petter Törefors takes the Swedish
company Skeppshult as an example. This is one
of Sweden´s most well-known bicycle brands
that has taken capacity utilization to a whole
new level. All manufacturing has been done in
their own workshop in southern Sweden since
1911, and to make their production even more
sustainable they wanted to increase efficiency in
their coating process with special hangers. In
one specific coating case they went from 54 pcs
per hour to 180 pcs per hour with the new
solution. The green effect was summed up in
HangOn conducted a life cycle analysis (LCA) on all the hooks produced for the Swedish market.
Everything was counted in, from the energy consumption when the steel was made to the energy
consumption in the process where the hooks are used. The numbers above show the result. “That´s why it
is so important for us at HangOn to do everything we can to provide our customers with sustainable
solutions that can reduce their energy consumption”, Petter Törefors says.
66 percent energy savings and a total coating
cost savings of 53 percent. In another of
Skeppshult´s coating cases they went from 216
pcs per hour to 864 pcs with the new solution,
resulting in 75 percent energy savings and a
total coating cost savings of 63 percent.
And this is exactly what the Green Effect is all
about – lowering your energy consumption and
increasing your profit. You will have an
enormous Green Effect by increasing the
hanging density in your coating process,
Törefors says.
Reduced energy consumption of
utmost importance
As previously stated, going green and
prioritizing matters of sustainability is an
important goal for all manufacturing industry,
with increased customer awareness and
continually strengthened requirements from all
European governments, all by the lead of EU
regulations. From February 10 to March 16,
earlier this year the team at HangOn made a
market study which garnered responses from
250 participants in 11 countries, representing a
range of regions, company sizes, coating
processes and professional roles.
This study shows that the impact of issues
concerning sustainability in the coating industry
is significant. 85 percent agrees that
sustainability is important to their company. The
same number of respondents agrees that issues
related to energy consumption will become
more important over the next five years.
So, what are, according to the respondents,
the most important means to improve
sustainability?
Reduced energy consumption is deemed as
the most important factor, followed by reduced
powder consumption, and reduced chemical
and pre-treatment usage, Törefors says.
Increasing hanging density – an
easy step to undertake
And when it comes to the most important
means to reduce energy consumption, a
majority of the respondents agree that the secret
lies within increasing line utilization, such as
maximizing the number of coated items per
hour.
And to improve coating line utilization,
increasing hanging density is the most important
factor, according to 30 percent of responders.
This is a fairly easy step to undertake, compared
to other costly investments, when pressured to
become more sustainable while still delivering
profits, Törefors says.
At the HangOn production site in Hillerstorp,
Sweden, efforts are continually made to reduce
their own energy consumption, ranging from
developing more energy efficient production
processes to installing solar cell panels and LED
lighting.
But improving the efficiency in our
customers´ coating lines is by far the biggest
impact we can make for sustainability, Petter
Törefors says
Finishing - September/October 2023