n.1, APRIL 2014

When we started to imagine what we could do to make industrial productions more energy and resources efficient, we made assumptions on integrating technologies that finally led to submit the REEMAIN proposal. It is interesting to see that our approach is still valid today and reflected in the Factories of the Future research agenda and calls for proposals. Our work has started less than six months ago and will hopefully finish by September 2017. By that time we’ll be able to tell whether our approach was successful and will know what kind of legacy, in the form of new systems or standards, it can leave to the European manufacturing community.

This newsletter intends to keep scientists, innovators and manufacturers abreast of project’s activities and findings. Interestingly, we have given REEMAIN a strong demonstration dimension, looking at three different sectors: food, metal and textile. In this initial phase of the project, we’re analysing their requirements, facing the multiple challenges that process adaptation can present in each of these sectors. This is a complex and yet a fundamental step which will eventually allow us to define efficient ways of extending our approach to other production sectors.

Making manufacturing more efficient is key to maintain European’s competitiveness and keep production alive in our economies, as well as globally benefitting the environment in which we live. Our ambition is to provide models and methodologies, by the end of our work, to decrease energy and resources consumption in as many sectors as possible, contributing also to make EU companies export c-lean (clean and lean) production technologies in the rest of the world.

Our newsletter will be distributed twice a year. Please feel free to encourage other stakeholders or interested parties to subscribe to it, keep an eye on REEMAIN and get in touch whenever you feel it would be appropriate to point us to new sectors, developments or complementary initiatives.

Efficiently yours, Anibal Reñones

REEMAIN Project Coordinator, Fundación CARTIF

Inside

Welcome to the 1st REEMAIN Newsletter

4 News from REEMAIN

REEMAIN Interviews 7

In the spotlight: SCM Foundry

2

Recommended events

8

Anibal Reñones, Project Coordinator, Fundación CARTIF

pag. 2 REEMAIN newsletter - n. 1, April 2014

Located at 500 mts from the beach in one of the Italian capitals of tourism, the SCM foundry in Rimini is one of the three plants involved in the demonstration activities of the REEMAIN project. SCM is a large producer of cast-iron, with an yearly output of 20,000 tons from two production sites. “We have always been aware of environmental issues, even before these turned into legal constraints – says Stefano Cucchetti of SCM Research division – In the last years, the financial crisis and the growing costs of energy have made innovation a top priority for our company. Foundries run high energy consuming production processes and margins working on a low added value product tend to be tight. Innovating our manufacturing workflow is fundamental and this is why we have decided to team up with the REEMAIN consortium”.

As paradoxical as it may sound, in the foundry processes, energy is often used (or wasted) to expel energy (heat). This has become a challenge for the REEMAIN research team.

“Our emissions are strictly controlled – Stefano says – with the processes to melt metals, our furnaces reach temperatures of 1,600°. Then we need to expel smokes, but these have to transformed into carbonic dioxide with a methane burner and their temperatures lowered dramatically so that they do not damage our filters. Because of the extreme conditions developed in furnaces as a combination of high temperatures and corrosive dusts, we have very complex requirements, which we hope to solve partially through research in REEMAIN. Additionally, within a couple of years we expect to install methane powered furnaces. Thus we need to engineer a system that can work with today’s coal furnaces specifically designed for cast-iron, and tomorrow with the new technologies”.

Together with the challenges posed by the specificities of the cast-iron processes in terms of high temperatures, the recovery of thermal energy is also a priority.

“We look at doing it from the exhaust flows of the foundry, which means identifying the most appropriate solution to transfer energy from the flue gases to another instrumental medium (water, steam, organic fluids). This should result into the design of a new heat exchanger. The idea is to enable the transformation of the recovered thermal energy into electricity for internal use of the foundry or for "selling" to the network. The idea of producing electricity was proposed from the beginning having in mind an estimate of the waste heat from the furnace. Obviously, direct use of heat for internal needs was also kept

SCM GROUP S.p.A. - Fonderie designs, manufactures, supplies, and installs woodworking and panel processing equipment. Fonderie is a profit unit dedicated to the production of grey, spheroidal and compacted graphite cast iron castings for various sectors of the market.

It offers standard machines for joinery companies, including integrated lines for the industrial production of furniture and housing construction wood components, boat building, and joinery and bespoke interior manufacturers; large CNC routing machining centers; parquet lines, automatic tenoners, and assembly and packaging systems; cooling, profiling, and sizing line for polyurethane; integrated plants for wood wool; and plants for 2 layers parquet production. The company also provides installations, training, preventative maintenance, and emergency visit services. It exports its products internationally. The company was founded in 1952 and is based in Rimini, Italy.

Nowadays SCM foundries produce, with two factories located in Rimini and in Villa Verucchio respectively, grey and nodular iron castings for various sectors of the market.

Website: http://www.scmfonderie.it Contacts for REEMAIN project: Stefano Cucchetti, head of R&D Giuseppe Lucisano, R&D

About SCM Why innovation is fundamental in European manufacturing. The perspectives of an end-user.

In the spotlight: SCM Foundry

pag. 3 REEMAIN newsletter - n. 1, April 2014

(Continued)

in mind. Once we have a better idea of the heat exchanger, we expect to identify solutions that maximize the energy recovered from the exhaust flows (that is working at the highest possible temperature). This could be the result of a modular approach that suits the current conditions of the cupola furnace, but also future developments when the rotary furnaces will be installed. From a cost perspective, this might be the most delicate phase in our project, since the majority of the costs of the whole energy recovery solution will be due to the electricity generation system”.

In the first phase of the project SCM have been working together with the research teams in simulating the requirements and real conditions in which the exchanger would work.

“Right now – concludes Stefano – it is difficult to predict precisely what characteristics our prototype will have. For sure we expect substantial gains in efficiency for it”.

pag. 4 REEMAIN newsletter - n. 1, April 2014

Technical visits to the demo sites are completed 9 April 2014

With a two days visit to Bossa, in Adana, in southern Turkey, the REEMAIN group has concluded the round of preliminary visits to the three industrial sites involved in the project. The first plant to be studied in terms of energy efficiency of its processes has been the SCM foundry in Rimini in November 2013, followed by the Gullón factory (production of biscuits) in Aguilar de Campo, in Spain last February. Representatives from all technical partner (CARTIF, Solera, IWU, Ikerlan, IES , EURAC and De Montfort University) have already identified some of the key areas for intervention which will be detailed in the coming months.

“Visiting the industrial plants involved in the project – says Marco Cozzini from EURAC – is a fundamental phase, because it helps the research group to identify the right methodological approaches in different production sectors, and to define the most appropriate Key Performance Indicators to properly assess gains in efficiency”.

The REEMAIN consortium has completed the round of visits to the three plants involved in the pilot activities for investigations on the resource efficiency needs in industrial production processes.

- See more at:

pag. 5 REEMAIN newsletter - n. 1, April 2014

iProSPER ready to launch!

31 March 2014

The collaborative platform is called iProSPER and it stands for the International Program for Sustainable Production and Energy Reduction. IMS is an industry-led, international business innovation and research and development (R&D) programme established to develop the next generation of manufacturing and processing technologies through multi-lateral collaboration. IMS is associated with the World Manufacturing Forum. In iProSPER, REEMAIN connects to three leading universities and one industrial in the USA. From Europe, REEMAIN links to five additional partners (2 industrials, 2 universities and one RTO) which connect project activities to several additional FP7 projects and research efforts in the USA. Activities will include joint workshops, the exchange of best practices and aspects related to non-competitive research such as KPIs, methodologies and lessons learned from pilot activities. The platform will

Under the framework of the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) program, REEMAIN’s has formed a “Manufacturing Technology Platform (MTP) project extension” that links REEMAIN to other research efforts and organizations in Europe and the USA.

remain open to new members. If you would like further information about iProSPER, contact Thomas Messervey.

pag. 6 REEMAIN newsletter - n. 1, April 2014

A view of Factories of the Future from other sectors: the agricultural machinery producers

14 March 2014

From his office in Brussels, Ulrich Adam, the Secretary General of CEMA (European Agricultural Machinery Association) looks with interest at the Factories of the Future PPP.

“Efficiency in manufacturing processes is a precondition for competitiveness in the international arena and this specially affects our sector. Why? A substantial portion of European products are exported to other areas of the world where agricultural mechanisation is progressing fast. With comparatively high labour costs, the EU has to find new ways to keep its industrial production going. This calls for more automated, higher precision systems, and of course for effective strategies in keeping process costs under control, such as energy or resources consumption, for instance”.

But the needs of the agricultural machinery producers go beyond the simple optimisation of processes.

“When you think about agricultural machinery, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a tractor.

With a population of 4,500 manufacturers, an aggregate volume of 28 billion € yearly production volume and 10 national associations, the agricultural machinery sector is one of European manufacturing strengths.

But a modern-day tractor has little in common with its 20th-century predecessors. Today, tractors are highly complex machines that embed a large range of technologies and devices. Our products are growing in complexity and they also need developments in connectivity, especially if we want to make the precision farming paradigm a reality. One of the problems with complex products is that it is still very costly to produce them, which somehow hinders entry in markets where cost is a critical factor. Research areas that look for instance at mass customisation could be very interesting for us. And finally, research that combines production processes with materials looks very promising. Novel composites might actually enable new lightweight components, which has implications both on manufacturing and on performance, including emissions, of the final products”.

pag. 7 REEMAIN newsletter - n. 1, April 2014

Why does REEMAIN focus on those technologies (Solar Concentration, Electricity Storage, Simulation tools)? Industries selected in REEMAIN represent different requirements in terms of required thermal load (low temperature of textiles and biscuits manufacturing compared to very high temperatures in foundry) and electricity loads. At the moment, solar thermal systems are mainly used in the field of domestic hot water generation. In Europe, the final energy consumption of the industrial and commercial sector is about 28% of the overall energy consumption and 2/3 of this energy is consumed for heating applications. More than 60% of the industry uses process heat with temperatures below 250°C. Thus, it appears that the integration of solar energy in industrial processes is quite an attractive prospect. However, it lacks of enough demonstration examples in real industrial environments. That’s the reason why REEMAIN intends to develop a cost effective and robust concentrating solar collector that could be used profitably in industrial processes at different operation temperature (90°C - 250°C). On the other hand, using Electricity Energy Storage –EES- can decrease peak demand and increase valley demand, increase security of energy supply, etc. However, very few RES integration with ESS have been fully tested and verified in real industrial processes. From this perspective, we aim at developing a cost-effective electricity storage system prototype tailored and suitable to real industrial scenarios. Finally, simulation tools nowadays don't include real-time monitoring of the factory and its process. e.g. they don't include the integrating with the electricity grid and renewable supply in order to perform real-time demand/response and predictive tariff analysis. What CARTIF, IKERLAN, Solera and IES (partners of REEMAIN) intend to do is developing an automated decision tool to assess in real-time the factory production processes. It will help decrease demand energy and material resources, and will allow develop better more efficient production techniques. Furthermore, it will allow know the costs and benefits of investments in energy reduction to be calculated in terms of the Return on Investment (RoI) for a range of sizes and types of manufacturer, including those factories where only relatively coarse energy data are available and those with a high level of detailed. Why an integrated approach rather than concentrating at developing those solutions individually? Industry has many processes that are also highly inefficient and which would allow a large fraction of this energy to be recovered, but, such recovery is not easy to use in the same factory, while the transport to other users is expensive. Many efforts have been made, however, have looked at this problem and have analyzed the factory at a granular level of detail. This is because most factories involve complex processes which are stand alone and not integrated with each other or with the factory environment. Each of these processes is specific to the industry and the product being produced and therefore not easy to find an overall solution. Thus, with the REEMAIN project, we will adopt a holistic approach, involving energy reduction, integration with RES and use of energy recovery technologies, focusing on more resource-efficiency and cleaner manufacturing technologies.

Fredy Velez is a PhD researcher at the Energy Division of CARTIF, Spain. We asked him a couple of questions on the technological focus of REEMAIN project and why integrating technologies matters to make manufacturing more efficient.

REEMAIN interviews

The importance of

technological demonstration examples In industrial environments 01/04/2014 write Fredy Velez

pag. 8 REEMAIN newsletter - n. 1, April 2014

Interesting upcoming events selected by the REEMAIN team

Recommended Events

Industrial Technologies Athens, 9 – 11 April

WMF, World Manufacturing Forum Milan, 1 – 2 July

The WMF was created by the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Program (IMS) to be an international forum where high-level policy makers and industry leaders could meet to discuss global manufacturing issues that should be solved cooperatively.

Each year the Forum strives to bring globally recognized experts to present their views on current topics. Ample time for networking during breaks and meal times promote lively discussions that can lead to mutual understanding and cooperation.

The WMF is an invitation-only event but open to influential leaders in manufacturing from anywhere in the world.

Info: www.worldmanufacturingforum.org

Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, GCSM Johor Bahru - Malaysia, 22 – 24 September

The main topics of the conference are:

Adequate environment for entrepreneurial initiative

Awareness for sustainability in public and government

Case studies in implementing various aspects of sustainable manufacturing

Education for sustainable engineering

Green supply chain and transportation

Information and communications technology

Innovative energy conversion and utilization

Life cycle engineering and assessment

Maintenance, repair and overhaul

Manufacturing processes, tools and technologies

Potentials of renewables

Product design for resource efficiency and effectiveness

Product service system

Remanufacturing, reuse and recycling

Resource utilization and waste reduction

Strategies and business models for sustainable development

Sustainability assessment and optimization

Value creation by sustainable manufacturing

Water resource management for sustainability

Info: www.gcsm.eu

pag. 9 REEMAIN newsletter - n. 1, April 2014

More information on this Newsletter and related dissemination and communication activities of the project available at: REEMAIN D&C Secretariat e-mail: secretariat@reemain.eu Project Coordinator Centro Tecnológico CARTIF Parque Tecnológico de Boecillo 205. C.P. 47151 Boecillo, Valladolid - España Tel. 0034 983 54 65 04 Fax 0034 983 54 65 21 Coordinator Anibal Reñones Industrial Diagnosis Area Fundación CARTIF Register on www.reemain.eu or get access with your LinkedIn, Facebook, Google or Twitter accounts to receive the REEMAIN newsletter via e-mail. For the purposes of media law, editorial responsibility rests with the REEMAIN Communication Secretariat.

About REEMAIN

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 608977