Greater sustainability is a goal that makes both environmental and business sense, and this is as true in control panel manufacturing as it is across most manufacturing industries. As a core business objective, reducing the environmental footprint of control panel manufacturing can mean reduced waste, increased incorporation of renewable energy practices, and cutting overall supply chain impacts that will help client businesses downstream meet their goals.
At Enercon, we believe that adopting sustainability practices can be achieved by reducing negative externalities arising from production while maintaining the high-quality standards our customers expect. Here, we'll look at a few of those sustainability practices and their impact.
Integrating Sustainable Materials
In the traditional manufacturing process for industrial control panels, the main components, such as circuit boards, wiring, and enclosures, were made using materials with limited recyclability. They also may have used materials with a high environmental impact post-use, such as non-recyclable plastics or heavy metals.
Control panel manufacturers, including Enercon, have been looking at ways to minimize the environmental impacts of their product throughout all stages of its lifecycle while maintaining rated quality. This has seen a greater focus on sustainable materials, such as:
Using aluminum or stainless steel for enclosures for ease of recycling
Greater use of bioplastics or eco-friendly polymers for wiring and other components
Cutting the use of hazardous substances (such as lead or mercury) and choosing RoHS-compliant materials (and always where applicable by law)
Despite the drive for sustainability, components must remain compliant with relevant standards. At Enercon, we work hard to identify where new materials can substitute less sustainable ones while maintaining the same performance.
Cutting Waste in Production
Along with more sustainable materials, an important consideration is using sustainable work practices in building control panels. These include:
Optimizing material processes: When thinking about waste, it’s easy to look around the shop floor and see offcuts and other waste that could be reduced by increasing precision. Using advanced cutting technologies that more accurately measure the cutting process, along with better material planning, overall waste can be reduced. Unavoidable waste in the form of metal shavings, scraps, or loose wire clippings can be recycled when made of the right materials.
Rethinking packaging and waste: Both internally and when delivering to customers, big changes can be made in how panels and components are moved and stored, such as by introducing reusable component bins and containers or unhookable ties and strapping instead of single-use ones.
Energy use: Control panels can help reduce energy wastage for customers, but we can also apply the same principles when we build them. At Enercon, we reduce our carbon footprint by incorporating renewable electricity generation where possible. We also utilize the smart technologies used in our control panels to identify power usage sinks and where maintenance or component replacement may be needed.
Greater Product Efficiency
Sustainability in control panel manufacturing also means delivering a sustainable product that improves the efforts of the customers where they are deployed. This starts at the basics, like using the most energy-efficient components possible, such as low-loss transformers or more efficient inverters, to minimize energy loss during function.
Modern control panels are also fitted with IoT sensors and remote communication capacity, allowing controllers to identify power consumption across their facility, which means they can better identify losses and improve efficiency. Remote controls can also minimize idle time and maintain regulated process speeds, such as with variable frequency drives, which can decrease power consumption by 50% and help companies improve product consistency while reducing wasted energy spend.
Modular Design Principles
At Enercon, we also believe that using modular design principles in our products significantly improves efficiency, with upgrades and component retrofits being easier to implement without having to completely replace the control panel. This concept extends the product’s lifespan and can be applied to much larger electrical systems such as gensets and microgrids.
Modular design concepts also incorporate the idea of ‘design for disassembly’, which is an approach that considers the end of the product’s lifecycle. Along with ease of replacement, components can be more easily taken apart and separated to make the recycling process simpler.
Control panels themselves are also used to provide greater energy efficiency at facilities by giving more effective control over HVAC systems, lighting, motors, and emergency backup power. The more efficient the systems used both in their production and final use, the greater the energy savings the control panel creates in its lifecycle.
Conclusion
In the quest for more sustainable manufacturing practices, control panels have a role to play in their own production and their final use. At Enercon, we are committed to sustainability as it delivers several benefits for both ourselves and our customers downstream. We incorporate these practices at every stage of the process, from using more eco-friendly or recyclable component materials to driving energy efficiency, reducing material waste and using renewables at our facilities.
These control panels then improve energy efficiency for our customers, with smart sensors helping to identify power consumption and introduce energy-saving actions. They are also designed to reduce the need for total replacement and ease end-of-life recycling processes.
To learn more about how Enercon can help you meet your sustainability goals both through our impact on the supply chain and our control panels’ impact on your processes, you can talk to our team here.
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