Smart Efficiency is the all-embracing topic

Hannover Messe 2011 will take the stage under the banner of „Smart Efficiency“. From April 4 to 8, 2011, companies from all over the world will present key industrial technologies at thirteen flagship international trade fairs. Yet what does this mean in practice? Dr. Wolfram von Fritsch, Chairman of the Management Board of Deutsche Messe states: „Efficiency within individual industrial sectors has been a predominant topic for years. Designing industrial processes requires more than just mere efficiency: it requires the intelligent interconnection and exploitation of all the individual efficiency factors. Smart efficiency integrates the factors of cost, process and resource efficiency. Only the intelligent interaction of these factors can guarantee a long-term pres-ence for companies in the marketplace and help them remain internationally competitive.“ According to von Fritsch, “the concrete upshot of this involves the economical, conservative use of energy and materials, the optimisation of production processes and cost-efficient management policies.”

Only Hannover Messe brings together the relevant technologies along the industrial supply chain. Hannover Messe is about innovations and new developments, technologies and products as well as about efficient processes and materials. Featuring the core topics of industrial automation, energy technology, subcontracting and services, plus drive systems and fluid power, Hannover Messe reflects the key trends emanating from these industries.

For many years now, Industrial Automation has been the leading international trade fair for process and production automation as well as system solutions. It covers all relevant areas of industrial automation technology – from production through process to cross-sector automation. This year, Industrial Automation will be located in Hall 11, enabling synergies to be generated with the neighbouring Energy trade show. The focus will be on industry-specific solutions for the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and food industries.

A further topic area at the flagship Industrial Automation fair will be ways to reduce product piracy. According to estimates by the German Ministry of Education and Research, counterfeit products cost the German economy alone around five billion euros each year. In conjunction with the Industrial Automation trade show at Hannover Messe 2011, companies and research institutes will be showcasing the bandwidth of options for protecting against product piracy. Identification, Vision & Protection is a separate product category located in Hall 17. Here, manufacturers will be exhibiting industrial marking and identification technologies as well as image processing solutions.

The right technologies enable businesses to both identify illegal imitations and protect their own products and know-how. A further important factor for companies is product tracking, which affords greater efficiency with respect to logistics and plays a critical role in preventing errors and cutting costs. The Identification, Vision & Protection display category will consequently focus on solutions not allied to any particular industry – for example, intelligent image processing capable of recognising components and testing their quality, RFID tags, barcodes and data matrix codes that enable products to be identified and controlled.

One of the headline topics addressed by Motion, Drive & Automation (MDA) at Hannover Messe 2011 will be „Condition Monitoring Systems“ (CMS). This technology makes an important contribution towards „Smart Efficiency“ in a variety of industrial sectors by continuously acquiring and interpreting condition data about plants, machinery and components as a way to dramatically increase their operating efficiency. „Calls by plant operators for ever higher productivity, system availability and process stability create a need for machines that combine optimal reliability and safety. It is therefore vital to monitor the condition of components and systems, so that maintenance work can be scheduled precisely and downtimes restricted to a minimum. This cuts the costs for maintenance, giving the machine or plant owner a clear economic advantage. The MDA Forum in Hall 24 will attempt to provide answers to CMS questions with practice oriented presentations under the motto ‚From industry for industry’“, explains Peter-Michael Synek of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) Mechatronics Forum, when asked to comment on the enormous potential opened up by condition monitoring.

In the last few years, energy efficiency has played just as crucial a role in compressed air production as it has in power transmission and control. There are numerous possible approaches here, for example regarding the distribution network. The fact that line leakage wastes compressed air – and therefore energy – is obvious. Once the distribution network has been optimised, the simple deployment of a speed-controlled compressor often pays off. With the exception of continuous processes in process engineering, an air audit will generally reveal fluctuations. Compared with fixed speed compressors, the investment in a variable speed compressor can be recovered fast.

For heavier requirements it is advisable to deploy a general control system. The advantage of this is that the user can coordinate the operation of several compressors at a single station. A smaller fixed speed compressor to cover the basic load, for example, can be supplemented by a variable speed compressor for the variable load. The advantage of such control systems is that they cannot only control several compressors (even several fixed compressors), but also operate variable compressors with the highest possible efficiency coefficient.

A centrally arranged compressed air station of this type offers numerous advantages – assuming the compressed air lines are not too long, which would then provide an argument for decentralised distribution. If all compressors can be grouped into one or just a few stations, this not only simplifies servicing and maintenance, but can also facilitate a system for heat recovery based on the heat generated by compression, thus further cutting energy costs.

Once the compressed air supply is optimised, there are additional significant aspects from an energy point of view. The first priority is to select the right dryer: both cold and adsorption dryers are possible options, depending on the necessary pressure dew point.

There is great potential for improvement in many compressed air systems – not just with regard to energy efficiency. By discarding the notion that “we already have compressed air”, companies can reduce their operating costs with relatively little effort. An air audit can help quantify the different solutions.

Visitors to the ComVac trade fair can get a fast overview of the products and services available. A first port of call will be the ComVac Eco-Park – a pilot project sponsored by Deutsche Messe and the VDMA. Here, interested visitors can get a thorough introduction to the latest issues involving compressed air and vacuum technology – and view rising energy costs with greater equanimity.