New ISO standards for green machine tools

When the topic of green manufacturing comes up, energy-efficient machine tools are not usually what is envisioned. Yet machine tools contain motors and auxiliary components that can place large energy demands during their operations. Fortunately, a new series of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards can help measure energy consumed and improve machine design and performance.

Machine tools are complex, power-driven industrial devices. They encompass an array of tools and their accessories for cutting and forming metal.

Machine tools, such as presses, obviously use different forms of energy, including electrical, hydraulic, and compressed air. Energy is consumed in the cooling and lubrication systems as well.

Therefore, the energy demand of a machine tool is a key consideration for investment, but it does not stand alone. The performance of a machine tool is multidimensional, comprising its economic value, technical specifications, and operating requirements, which are influenced by the specific application. That explains why calculating the ecological footprint for these products can be challenging.

As natural resources become more taxed, environmental performance criteria for machine tools need to be defined and the use of these criteria specified.

ISO has recently published the first two parts of a new, international standard for the environmental evaluation of machine tools. It proposes to analyze machine tools by their delivered functions to highlight their commonalities despite the variations in existing machine tool types.

ISO 14955-1. Environmental evaluation of machine tools—Part 1: Design methodology for energy-efficient machine tools addresses the energy efficiency of machine tools during their working lives. It identifies the main functions and machine tool components that are responsible for energy demand during the use phase. Then these components are compared with their previous versions or with state-of-the-art versions for their future improvement.

ISO 14955-2. Environmental evaluation of machine tools—Part 2: Methods for measuring energy supplied to machine tools and machine tool components supports the energy-saving design methodology according to ISO 14955-1 by providing practical methods for measuring the energy supplied to machine tools.

Ralf Reines, convenor of the ISO/TC 39/WG 12 technical committee that developed the standards, explains: “This is, to my knowledge, the only standard concerning this topic that is tailored for machine tools. It covers the topic in a way that it can be applied to each and every machine tool, despite the fact that the product group of machine tools is extremely diverse.” Machine tooling comprises many different methods and technologies, such as blanking, stamping, forming, automation, grinding, laser processing, and material movement. In addition, part sizes must be accounted for. The standard focuses on the energy used to achieve higher environmental performance without sacrificing technical performance.

According to “Market Report 2016” by the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association, the world production of machine tools stands at EUR 67.7 billion ($79 billion). The increasing demand for machinery and production systems to be more energy-efficient is a relatively new challenge for machine designers. Now, with the new ISO 14955 series, energy efficiency is likely to become an increasingly important quality attribute of modern machine tools.

ISO 14955-1 and ISO 14955-2 were developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 39, Machine Tools, with secretariat held by SNV, ISO’s member for Switzerland.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) www.iso.org/about-us.html