Short description of Schmitz-Werke

At the Emsdetten site (near Münster), a workforce of about 800 people operates on a three-shift basis to produce about 120,000 meters of high-tech textiles per week at full capacity, under the brand names drapilux, swela and markilux.

Motivation

Schmitz-Werke, a manufacturer of high-tech textiles, has been keeping an eye on its energy consumption for a long time. After installing a building management system, it invested in an integrated energy management system Simatic B.Data from Siemens, with which it will be able to allocate energy consumption systematically to its plant sections and pinpoint additional potential for saving energy. As those responsible for the system state: "What we can get from this is really strong stuff."

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Project description:

Energy Management with many analysis options Decisive factors for optimized factory operation are the appropriate meters for electricity, steam, water, compressed air and gas. As many as 100 meters are distributed across the factory, and their values previously had to be recorded on a largely manual basis. "The problem until now," Norbert Gerling explained, "has been the difficulty of evaluating this energy information." Until now, the data were used exclusively for building control and could not be analyzed at all – or only at great expense and effort, primarily because most of it was manually recorded.

For this reason, a Simatic S7 controller for recording all relevant energy data was installed and was linked via Simatic Net OPC servers directly to the B.Data energy management system.

Energy Management

Schmitz-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Emsdetten / GermanyImprovement of competitiveness by Energy Management on the basis of B.Data

Norbert Gerling / Head of Production Technology, Schmitz-Werke

With a full-capacity energy consumption of about 11 million kilowatt hours per year, every percentage saved is worth a great deal of money. "Although in the past we have already leveraged significant optimization potential by means of the building management system, I am still reckoning on saving an additional 5 percent by means of energy management," commented the plant engineer. Meanwhile, the new system already has paid for itself. He added: "Even after the first evaluations in B.Data, we immediately noticed some high energy consumers that we were quickly able to optimize using controller adaptations that were easy to perform and were therefore saving money right after installing the program."

One important topic regarding the intelligent recording of energy consumption, for example, is the standby current that often is underestimated considerably in production plants. But leakage in the compressed air supply also plays a significant role. The energy management system now automatically records all relevant factors influencing energy flows within the plant.

Easy to install and use Gerling has learned already how easy it is to install and operate the Siemens energy management system. The in-house information technology (IT) department installed a virtual server on the existing hardware. By remote access, Siemens then set up the program with basic parameter settings. In the preparatory phase, this just required a consultation of a few hours.

Gerling also regards as a great advantage the fact that the system operates with standardized data formats. In this way, all energy data can be generated as standard reports on the basis of Microsoft® Excel, saving time and presenting users with a trusted format. The required evaluations can also be extracted easily from the program and sent by email to any recipients. At Schmitz-Werke, for example, these recipients are the various heads of departments.

Creating one’s own individual evaluation screenforms It is important that the durations, intervals and data points for the evaluations can be individually parameterized. Gerling sees yet another plus point here for this solution: "We can create the required evaluation screenforms all

ourselves, so we do not need any support from the software manufacturer, which also recommends the system as a very economical solution for other applications." According to his experience, this operation is not so easily done for rival products. The importance of an individual adaptation of the energy management system is demonstrated by the increased desire on the part of the regional authority for corresponding operating journals. These journals must record daily and sometimes even hourly values, in order to be able to document the environmental impact of the production processes on an uninterrupted basis. "With the new energy management system, we have all of this information at our fingertips at any time," Norbert Gerling said.

Safeguard the Emsdetten site in Germany by Energy Management With the installation of its own energy management system – the modular and industry-neutral B.Data energy management system from Siemens - the next step has now been taken: data of the building can be analyzed intelligently and individually for the first time, revealing further potential for energy saving. What started with the monitoring of auxiliary processes should gradually work its way through the entire production process. The aim is to be able to produce more economically through environ-mental awareness and thereby safeguard Germany’s position as a textile producer. B.Data is ideally suited to this purpose, as Gerling’s comment makes clear: "It enables any company to determine much of its energy-saving potential very easily."

Implementation periode: 2011

Siemens AG ÖsterreichIndustry SectorIndustry AutomationWolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 24020 Linz, Österreich

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Your contact:

Rudolf Traxler Tel. +43 (0)5 1707 61875 rudolf.traxler@siemens.com

B.Data Plant ExplorerController SIMATIC S7-315 2PN/DP

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