How to Save Money With ECO suite (IMTS Part 3)
Brad Klippstein 10.12.2016
In Part 3 of our four-part series “Hot Topics at IMTS” we spotlight Okuma’s new energy saving technology, ECO suite.
At IMTS 2016 I was responsible for running demonstrations of Okuma’s new OSP suite, our new CNC control system. OSP suite combines Intelligent Technologies with various software applications to improve cycle and lead times while simultaneously achieving optimum machine conditions. Built on the OSP-P300 control platform, OSP suite seamlessly combines a visually pleasing and easy to use operating interface with customizable layouts, machine tool apps, widgets, shortcuts and touch screen technology to improve shop floor productivity. One of the applications in this system is ECO suite, which provides a variety of energy saving technologies right on the control. I was excited to share what’s possibly the best news of all…ECO suite now comes standard with all of our machine tools that have OSP suite software.
Just Use It
With ECO suite already on your machine, all you have to do is use it. It’s nothing extra that you need to pay for. So I was showing people 1. How to turn ECO suite on, and 2. How to customize it for when you want to turn certain processes off and back on. As an example, many people are familiar with a similar operation on a laptop computer, where you go into Settings and choose how much time you want to go by before the light on your screen goes into sleep mode. Sleep mode helps reduce the drain on your battery. In similar fashion ECO suite allows you to set your control to automatically turn off functions on the machine or peripheral equipment that aren’t needed at that moment, to reduce overall energy consumption.
WATCH: Check out this video for a visual tour of ECO suite
But…How Much Money Can You Save?
While reducing energy consumption is nice, what people really care about is “how much money can I save?” I knew that! So before the show I put together a spreadsheet that demonstrates how much money you can actually save with this function. I included a variety of Okuma machines and also a state-by-state breakdown of cost per kilowatt hour for energy, then calculated how much money you can save using ECO suite.
Let’s look at an example for someone using an MCR-BIII double column machining center in the state of Massachusetts, where the cost per kilowatt hour is $12.96. Let’s say the power consumption during idling was 745 kilowatt hours. By using ECO suite, power consumption is reduced to 96 kilowatt hours, an energy reduction rate of 87%. Over the course of one month (24 hours x 20 days) this produces a savings of $107. Over the course of a year (240 days) this becomes a savings of $1,289. This savings becomes very significant for shops that have multiple machines, and all this just for using a simple control function that’s already on your machine tool.
A New Level of Customization
ECO suite is completely new and a big step forward in our industry. Having the ability to go into your control and turn things off function by function, component by component, is a new level of customization at your fingertips. This technology actually won the Excellence Award/Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award at the 45th Machine Design Awards, (sponsored by the Nikkan Kogyo Business & Technology Daily News) in 2015.
Need some help getting started? Feel free to contact us, or your distributor and we’ll walk you through the process.
Brad Klippstein is Controls Product Specialist, Okuma America Corporation.
