Wittmann’s New Tool Has Molders Seeing Green

Anticipating EU-mandated reduction of CO₂ emissions by manufacturers, the Wittmann Group has created a simple calculator to determine the product carbon footprint (PCF) throughout a product’s lifecycle.

The PCF calculation determines emissions from raw material production to recycling. The calculation is based on energy consumption of an injection molding cell and the amount of raw material processed per cycle (shot weight).

Software embedded in TEMI+

Wittmann’s calculator software will be available with the company’s TEMI+ manufacturing execution system (MES). By clicking a production cell on the TEMI+ extended dashboard, a processor receives data for each production cycle, including CO₂ emissions for single- or multi-cavity molds expressed in grams per cycle.

And just like that — your carbon footprint score. Image courtesy of Wittmann Group.

Energy usage is measured every cycle, either by the MES or Wittmann’s IMAGOxt software. This energy management software (EMS) was designed to help Wittmann customers implement the EU Green Deal, a plan to make the continent climate-neutral by 2050. IMAGOxt can use data gathered from sensors on all points of energy consumption to indicate energy costs per machine or injection molded part.

Geo-specific calculations

CO₂ emissions depend on production locations, the company noted. 

“For Germany, for example, with the current electricity mix, the factor is 0.354 g CO₂ per Wh (watt hour),” the company said in a press release. “This value is stored in the MES or shared from the customer’s ERP so that the system can automatically calculate the CO₂ footprint of the production cell. The CO₂ footprint of the raw material is also a predefined value . . . provided by the material manufacturer and entered into the MES.”    

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The IMAGOxt software creates a dynamic picture of energy use and lets users create custom key performance indicators to monitor usage, according to a Wittmann data sheet. The system integrates all industrial communication instruments, including previously existing equipment, and allows data access via the cloud.