ŠKODA commissions energy efficient press line

At its plant in Mladá Boleslav, ŠKODA will begin using an efficient new press line for car body parts as part of its sustainability strategy ‘GreenFuture’. The high performance press is among the most modern and environmentally friendly plants of its kind in Europe.

21-2-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — Today, a particularly resource-conserving, highly efficient servo press line will be commissioned at ŠKODA’s main plant in Mladá Boleslav. The system is one of the most modern ones of its kind in Central Europe, combining a high degree of environmental friendliness with effectiveness. The 66 million EUR investment is part of ŠKODA’s environmental strategy ‘GreenFuture’. One of the pillars of this strategy is called ‘GreenFactory’ – it develops solutions to make ŠKODA’s manufacture even more environmentally friendly.

Within the framework of the company-wide environmental strategy, ŠKODA intends to raise the environmental friendliness of its production by another 25 percent until 2018. The sustainability strategy ‘GreenFuture’ focuses on a reduced use of energy and water, fewer CO2 and other emissions as well as an increased level of recycling in production. The new ŠKODA PXL press line is the latest measure on the road toward the brand’s Environmental Goals 2018. Through energy recuperation and storage, the servo-mechanical press line works of up to 15 percent more economical and, at the same time, faster and more precise than older comparable systems.

“We’re betting on technologies with as much energy efficiency as possible in order to further reduce energy consumption in production,” says Michael Oeljeklaus, the board member for the area of Production and Logistics. “Our new, efficient servo line is evidence for that. The PXL is able to accumulate the energy released during the pressing of large parts and to reuse it. Compared to conventional press lines, up to 15 percent of energy are thus saved in permanent operation.”

The new system includes several innovations compared to conventional press systems: The most significant one is the use of servo motors working in a decentralized fashion. Whereas a large motor once ensured the operation of an entire line, today, a total of 14 clearly more efficient servo motors perform this task. This allows for an extremely flexible adjustment of the individual processes along the PXL line.

Controlling the new system has become easier as well: thus, changeover times have been shortened from the original fourteen minutes to only three minutes. The handling of the molds sometimes weighing more than 60 metric tons is performed by a modern, automated crane system. Furthermore, the new servo press line is easy to maintain as it does not employ conventional system components such as a fly wheel and a clutch/brake module.

The new PXL servo press line was installed in the hall M12 at ŠKODA’s main plant in Mladá Boleslav; the sum of the investment amounts to 66 million EUR. The investment in the new press is part of the ŠKODA sustainability strategy ‘GreenFuture’. Besides the economical use of resources in production (GreenFactory), ‘GreenFuture’ also focuses on the efficiency of the brand’s vehicles (GreenProduct) as well as environmentally friendly sales and customer service (GreenRetail).

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ŠKODA commissions energy efficient press line