The performance of machine tools varies depending on technical specifications and operating requirements, making it difficult to determine a common set of environmental performance criteria - but ISO has recently published the first two parts of a new International Standard for the environmental evaluation of such tools based on the commonalities that can be found in the huge variety of types.
The standard covers the topic in a way that it can be applied to each and every tool, despite the fact that the product group of machine tools is extremely diverse using different technologies (such as milling, turning, grinding, laser processing, forming), processing of material (metal, wood, plastics), sizes (to produce parts the size of a tooth or to process gears for windmills). The standard focuses on the relevant energy users to achieve a higher environmental performance without losing in technical possibilities, according to Ralf Reines, developer of the standards.
The ISO standards can help measure energy supplied and improve machine design and performance, according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). These tools are "complex power-driven industrial devices employed to manufacture ready-for-use parts or semi-finished products. Encompassing a whole array of tools for cutting and forming metal, wood and plastics, and all their accessories, machine tools are used by companies in a variety of sectors like the automotive industry, general machinery, precision engineering, the medical sector, transport, aerospace, and dyes and mould," ISO says. "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."
