Air Power USA has spent years finding creative ways to help industrial facilities and plants save money, reduce energy usage, enhance production efficiency, and raise safety levels for their workforce. This article spotlights a low-cost implementation for plastic manufacturing facilities. While the product can be used on most heated industrial applications, our focus is on Injection molding machines.
Insulation Jackets
Air Power spends most of our focus working within utility programs to help our customers maximize their energy efficiency investments. Working with ComEd, we’re able to offer participation in a special program that pays for 100% of the cost of insulation blankets for injection molding machines and extrusion molding machines. We typically take a portfolio approach when presenting energy reduction opportunities. This is just one of many project areas we offer and a particularly attractive one at that. In most utility programs we can have these installed with most up front costs covered for the customer. Even outside of utility programs these projects tend to be around a 2-year payback.
An insulation jacket is best described as a blanket that covers the barrels of an injection molding machine. It’s a simple efficiency improvement process. The jacket keeps the heat inside. That means there is less heat lost and it requires less energy to maintain the high temperature of the molten thermoplastic material.
The exact energy saving variables are going to differ based on ambient temperature, product temperature, machine size and operating hours. Starting with those metrics, the machine’s eligibility for the no or low cost program.
Our Process
The team at Air Power USA works directly within Utility programs and has developed a five step process for evaluation and installation of these insulation jackets around the barrel. We designed this process to deliver rapid, accurate results and put you on track to saving money sooner. Our intent is to manage the entire process on our customers behalf, at our cost to implement quickly without distracting from production. This is a brief summary of the process:
- Walkthrough
- The customer escorts us through taking our inventory of the machines. We explore each manufacturer, size class, and other variants between units assessing if they fit the application for barrel blankets.
- Scoping
- During a follow-up visit, we take a closer look at each individual unit. We gather more details about each piece of equipment and their hours of operation to help determine the energy saving opportunity.
- Evaluation
- The potential energy saved is calculated and pushed through the approval process in whatever utility that serves the client. Our methodology is already approved in all the utility programs we work with, keeping the process clean and easy.
- Customer Agreement
- The potential energy savings, any costs, and utility rebate are presented for customer approval. The necessary documents are signed and the order is placed.
- Installation and Verification
- The jackets arrive onsite and they are wrapped around the barrel of the injection molding machines. We make required adjustments and take temperature measurements again. Finally, the savings evaluation is updated with the actual temperatures of the machines with the insulation jackets installed. We submit all the utility paperwork on your behalf and take care of the whole process.
To learn more about the details of the evaluation process and the energy saving opportunities with insulation jackets, contact Air Power USA today.
