KEY FIGURES FOR DESCRIBING AND COMPARING THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF INJECTION MOLDING PROCESSES

摘要

This paper deals with energy consumption data for a broad variety of injection molded parts. An analysis shows that key figures can be derived for comparison and reference purposes and allow the evaluation of the energy efficiency in a part dependent production process. The key figures comprise material properties and part geometries to build a focus relative to these particular part characteristics independent of category or application. This approach goes beyond the widely applied method of examining a machine specific energy consumption data. A significant potential of energy reduction for most analyzed injection molding processes is expected.