Energy reduction in paint shops through energy-sensitive on-off control

Energy efficiency is the key for a sustainable manufacturing. However, energy efficiency measures often struggle with barriers, which inhibit their implementation. Environmental discrete event simulation is an approach increasingly discussed in research to overcome such barriers. Paint shops, which are responsible for 50-70% of an assembly plant's energy utilization in vehicular manufacturing, are seldom considered in this research, though. Therefore, the specific requirements on an energy consumption model for painting systems were investigated and implemented in simulation software. In addition, an energy-sensitive algorithm is proposed to reveal energy efficiency potentials based on an on-off control strategy. The result is a comprehensive simulation concept, that contributes to the removal of energy efficiency barriers by enabling a detailed evaluation of improvement measures and by indicating worthwhile saving potentials. A case study for a typical paint shop shows that the total energy saving potential is 7% in total, corresponding to more than 300 MWh of annual savings.