Why machine and system building play a crucial role

Machine building plays a central role in the ecological transformation of industry. By thinking ahead when designing production facilities, you can minimise the carbon footprint, conserve resources, and reduce energy consumption. The purposeful use of materials, recyclability and modularity are important steps towards a circular economy and increase the service life of a system. Digital technologies enable decisions to be made based on data and support resource-saving production.

Political framework conditions at European and international level are prompting the industry to take a closer look at sustainability. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a comprehensive framework for global sustainable development, with some of these goals specifically focussing on industry. In Europe, the European Green Deal and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) are key drivers for greater transparency and responsibility in sustainability reporting.

Political framework conditions for sustainable automation

This political framework also has an indirect influence on machine and system building. Manufacturing companies need to improve their sustainability balance and will have to pay more attention in the future to ensuring that their machines and systems are efficient in terms of their energy and resource consumption.

Important principles and guidelines at a glance:

Energy efficiency guidelines: The European Green Deal, which aims to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050, includes measures to improve energy efficiency. The EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) requires a comprehensive analysis of the energy consumption of technical systems.

Circular economy principles: The German Circular Economy Act (KrWG) and the EU Waste Framework Directive promote product longevity and optimised recycling processes. This means that machine builders and engineers need to make sure that the components used are manufactured with as few resources as possible, for example from recycled aluminium. When planning machines and systems, a modular design can make it easier to recycle the system.

The product carbon footprint: In machine building, the product carbon footprint (PCF) plays a decisive role in determining the CO₂ footprint of products. It records greenhouse gas emissions throughout the entire product lifecycle, from extracting the raw materials to disposing of them. It helps engineers plan machines and systems with the lowest possible CO₂ footprint in the manufacturing phase.

Digital product passport of the EU: The EU's Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a future digital data set that will contain all the information about the lifecycle of a product. It includes details such as materials, origin, environmental impact, reparability and disposal options. The aim of the DPP is to promote transparency and sustainability in the EU market by providing information on the entire value chain. This makes it easier for engineers and machine builders to understand the sustainability balance of drives and other components.

The most important adjustments in system building

Sustainability is a complex issue that is determined by extensive political framework conditions, regulations and new requirements for manufacturing companies. How can these new requirements be applied in machine and system building?

What really counts:

• Designing the system: A well thought-out, modular design enables easier repairability and maintenance, helping to avoid unnecessary waste. The ability to simply reuse or replace individual components extends the service life of the system, while also promotingsustainability.

• Modern control concepts: They use sensors to record and analyse machine data. This enablesvarious automation processes to be optimised, such as fitting a PCB. These optimised processes can be tracked using monitoring functions such as those provided by Festo AX.

• Scalability and flexibility: Systems should be designed in a scalable and flexible way so they can be adapted to fluctuating output quantities and new production steps. Expanding a system with additional components means it can be used more efficiently. This provides the necessary flexibility so that the system can be adapted to changing requirements and equipped with new functions at a later date.

• Component selection: Taking the product carbon footprint (PCF) into account is important when selecting components for any sustainable system design. For example, using bioplastics, recycled aluminium and small and lightweight construction methods reduce the system's environmental impact and product carbon footprint, and extends its service life. This will allow them to continue producing for decades and lead to a longer operating time. Although carrying out life cycle analyses is not the direct responsibility of the designers, they need to apply the specifications of the relevant experts.

• Energy-efficient drives: Choosing the optimum drive technology is crucial for developing sustainable production machines. Experienced machine builders know that there is no universal energy-saving drive system; instead, the choice depends on the specific requirements of each system. In order to design sustainable automation solutions, it is important to be familiar with the advantages of pneumatic and electric drives and their possible applications.

Designing sustainable production plants requires various elements to be carefully coordinated. From modular designs and modern control technologies to the choice of efficient drives, every step improves the efficiency and service life of the system.

Conclusion

Machine and system builders play a crucial role in making industry more sustainable by designing machines and production plants to be efficient. All aspects of sustainability, from planning to operation and disposal of the systems, must be taken into account and optimised by selecting suitable drives, components and open-loop controllers.

Sustainably designed automation is a key to making industrial production fit for the future. This helps manufacturing companies to achieve their sustainability goals and contributes to protecting the environment for future generations.