Factories go green
Energy software tools for sustainable machine design
Over the last decade there has been an ever growing demand for eco-friendly products. There is a greater public awareness of the ecological threats our planet faces. With this growing demand for eco-friendly goods it has become clear that the manufacturing plants which produce these products must equally be ecologically conscious. The researchers behind Energy Software Tools for Sustainable Machine Design (ESTOMAD) are working to create energy efficient machinery used for the construction of energy efficient automobiles. ESTOMAD explain that with the new design schemes the machines are expected to have average energy savings of 30% over their lifespan. It is expected that the newly adapted technology will also help the car industry, emphasising the fact that their "green" vehicles were created using "green" machines. This approach has previously been employed for products such as refrigerators and laundry machines with success. The project strives to develop ecological machines to construct ecological automobiles. They state that they are looking at methods to understand where energy is being consumed and where it is being lost during machine use. They expect to achieve this, thus optimising energy efficiency by adapting the design without sacrificing any machine performance.
For more information please contact: Bert Pluymers bert.pluymers@mech.kuleuven.be
PRESS4TRANSPORT is funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7)