Balancing procedure for energy and material flows in sheet metal forming

In the 21st century the design of energy efficient processes and process chains has become an important research field in production engineering. To meet the needs for sustainable process chains, evaluation methods and standards as well as planning tools have to be developed. In this paper, a new procedure for energy and material balancing, called PEMB, is introduced. On the basis of an investigated process or process chain the method leads into the related energy and material balance. Using key figures such as the energy efficiency or the process efficiency which are an integral part of the introduced method the evaluation of the regarded process or process chain can be carried out. On the example of the press hardening process chain the procedure PEMB is explained in detail and validated. The calculation of the energy and material balance for the cutting process as part of the press hardening process chain has resulted in an energy efficiency of 67% which showed energy saving potential for example by reducing the residual material, cycle time or basic load of the press. PEMB can be applied in terms of retrospective process chain improvement as well as for the prospective planning of energy and resource efficient process chains. (C) 2011 CIRP.