ADF Saves Energy at Volvo Car Corporation

The highly competitive automotive industry challenges manufacturers to constantly reduce costs. Volvo implemented ADF technology from Comsys in a press line application to address rising production and energy costs. The project resulted in reduced energy costs of 5.3%, increased equipment life, reduced maintenance needs and fewer power quality-based production interruptions.

 

Volvo_case1 "We chose Comsys ADF to achieve our environmental policy goals and to reduce energy costs."

- Christer Johansson, Stamping Maintenance

Background

Being a member of the Ford Motor Company family, Volvo Car Corporation produces about 450 000 cars annually. Volvo is renowned for safety, quality, and environmental friendliness. In order to reduce production costs and aid the environment, Volvo has set high internal standards for energy efficiency in production. For example, all new machinery must maintain a power factor exceeding 0.97. The Volvo Olofström plant in southern Sweden features multiple hydraulic presses used to shape advanced high-strength steel into complex body components.

Challenge

Hydraulic presses are an important part of the automotive manufacturing process. The rapid motion and cycling of this equipment make it very difficult to manage the reactive power consumption. Passive power factor correction is incremental and far too slow. It will inevitably compensate too much or too little, resulting in higher overall power consumption. Furthermore, the high levels of harmonics delimited the lifespan of existing capacitor banks to as low as three to five years in some cases.

Solution

To compensate for unwanted electrical losses on one of their 800 kW hydraulic presses, Volvo chose a 600 kVA ADF system from Comsys. There were a number of characteristics of the ADF that led to Volvo's choice:

  • The only possible solution
  • Dynamic and continuous compensation
  • Short response time
  • Impossible to overload
  • Automatic and instant adjustment to changing production requirements
  • Guaranteed continuous power factor of 0.97 or higher

Result

The ADF system assures Volvo Car Corporation optimized energy consumption and eliminates the risk of penalties for reactive power. ADF reduced the energy costs by 5.3% which translates into 1.3 years payback time. Additional savings stem from reduced maintenance requirements and prolonged equipment lifetime.

Key benefits | Hydraulic press:

  • Reduced energy costs: 5.3%
  • Payback time: 1.3 years
  • Only possible solution
  • Adapts automatically to changed production requirements
  • Lower life cycle costs than conventional compensation

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