L'Oréal Libramont, a worldwide reference for the group
For more than 20 years, this plant, through its environmental cell ETN SHE, has multiplied initiatives to tackle one specific problem: "How to produce more with less impact?". Reducing CO2 emissions, optimising energy consumption, limiting transport, reducing water consumption, the amount of waste produced, and promoting recycling: the Libramont site is active on all fronts.
Thanks to the mobilisation of its teams, the Libramont plant has become the showcase of industrial excellence in sustainable development. Certified with ISO 50001, it perfectly aligns with the "sharing beauty with all" strategic concept launched by the cosmetics giant in 2013. In doing so, L'Oréal is pursuing a sustainable internal policy on environmental and human aspects.
In 2009, the Libramont plant became the group's first 100% green energy plant, thanks to the introduction of bio methanation. Since then, a lot of water has flowed, but no longer as pure waste; it's recycled. The L'Oréal plant has become a "dry factory"! In other words, 100% of the water used for industrial processes (such as tank cleaning) is purified and reused for other processes on the site.
Guidance from Festo since the foundation
With its global expertise in the development of industry 4.0, Festo contributes to the digital evolution of companies. The Internet of Things (IoT), smart factories, cyber-physical systems and big data no longer hold any secrets for Festo. An IoT architecture and many intelligent services are ready or under development.
From the beginning, Festo has maintained excellent relations with the technical staff. Jurgen Seymortier, Festo sales engineer, works with the engineers, meets their expectations, and advises them. This approach goes even further; when acquiring new production units, the emphasis is on integrating Festo components and improving the level of knowledge about new technologies; specific training courses are organised by Aldo Zottos from the Festo didactic department.
Mobile energy efficiency module for monitoring and regulating energy
To evaluate the technical capabilities of the MSE6-E2M portable energy efficiency module, Festo offered L'Oréal's technical managers to host it at their plant. This ready-to-use solution requires little implementation to be operational: the connection of pneumatic pipes and a network or 4G connection. The cabinet includes two main elements:
It is an intelligent pneumatic supply unit that measures the diagnostic functions that support the energy-efficient operation of pneumatic systems. The typical module assembly is a downstream combination of supply units. The MSE6-E2M contains these main components: shut-off valve, flow sensor, pressure sensor and bus node.
The compressed air supply is automatically switched off if the E2M detects a standby condition based on predefined data. Compressed air consumption falls to zero during these pauses, even if the system leaks! The E2M checks the system for leaks when the air is cut off. A rapid pressure drop indicates excessive leakage; this then sends a message to the operator. The air supply system monitors, diagnoses and alerts the maintenance teams based on actual needs.
E2M provides simple energy monitoring by continuously providing process data. Connected via fieldbus, E2M cyclically exchanges important data such as flow, pressure and consumption.
The CPX-IoT Gateway connects the Energy Monitoring Module MSE6-E2M (or other Festo components) with the Festo Cloud via the OPC-UA interface. The cloud enables data preparation and monitoring. This allows the trend analyses to be derived, and systems are then sent an early warning and automatic messages for intermediate cases.
The CPX-IoT IoT Gateway provides pre-configured dashboards for each Festo element and displays values clearly in the cloud. This includes static device information such as Product Key and dynamic information such as real-time and historical data. You can access it wherever you are and whenever you want.
A conclusive test on a packer
The installation of the energy efficiency module was carried out on a Cermex case packer. This machine was chosen because, on the one hand, in operation it is a large consumer of pneumatic energy, and on the other, it is part of a production line where measuring devices are integrated to know the consumption in real-time.
What lessons can we learn from this?
According to Mr Benoît Laurent, Technical Supervisor at L'Oréal: "The first observation is that the module meets expectations; the reading on the dashboard showed us that the compressed air supply was poorly adjusted. On the other hand, the case packer had a power consumption of 80 l/min, which is not normal (for this test, the automatic power cut-off function during breaks was not activated).
After a measurement campaign, we conclude that a measurement system is useful for our production hall. We can collect data, analyse our production cycles, and see the flow of energy during the weekend, but we need to go further by integrating other data, such as electrical energy. "In terms of energy efficiency, this simple measurement of pressure and flow rate makes it possible to evaluate the total consumption to produce x number of products and, from this, the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness).
Predictive maintenance, the quest for the Grail?
The L'Oréal Group already has its own cloud. All available information from the factory is integrated for analysis. From a technical point of view, during maintenance work or when acquiring new production units, the effort is made to install integrated flow meters. A pneumatic measurement is more accurate than a simple current clamp on a conductor!
With data collection, it is possible to carry out predictive maintenance, provided you have the means to carry out trend analysis. For now, maintenance is always preventive and sometimes corrective. Measuring is good, but the idea is to go one step further! Festo understands this well. They bought Resolto Informatic with its artificial intelligence software SCRAITEC to offer predictive maintenance services through its IoT architecture. Therefore, a production unit like L'Oréal canreduce its maintenance costs even further. This is the evolution of the future!