Röchling: Innovative, energy-efficient, and successful worldwide
Röchling has been working with ONI’s energy-efficient technology for about 20 years. The plant engineering firm also developed an energy concept for the newly completed building.
The Industrial Division serves virtually all industrial sectors with materials optimized for specific applications. To this end, Röchling boasts what is arguably the most comprehensive product portfolio of thermoplastics and thermosets worldwide. The company manufactures semi-finished products such as sheets, round, hollow, and flat rods, molded parts, and profiles, as well as machined and assembled precision components. The Automotive Division specializes in components and system solutions in the fields of aerodynamics, powertrains, and new mobility.
With a customer-focused development approach and a global presence, the focus is on the current challenges facing the automotive industry: reducing emissions, weight, and fuel consumption. The Medical Division offers its customers a wide range of customized products, as well as standard plastic products for the pharmaceutical, diagnostics, surgical, and life science sectors. These high-quality products are used in innovative drug delivery and primary packaging systems, surgical instruments, and disposable diagnostic items.
The company’s positive growth has inevitably led to expansions or entirely new construction projects at various locations. For example, the Neuhaus facility—a leading production and development center specializing in low-germ, functional, and high-quality packaging systems for the pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and medical technology industries—has been further expanded. “We have relied on energy-saving technology from ONI for about 20 years. The reliable technology, energy efficiency, and first-class technical support are the key reasons for this long-standing partnership.
For this reason, we also had the ONI experts develop an energy concept for our newly completed building. Like the other two system concepts installed at our facility, the new concept was convincing and gave us the assurance that we are optimally positioned for the future in terms of supply security and energy efficiency,” says Managing Director Alexander Stauch, summarizing the reasons for continuing the collaboration with the system integrator.
“For this reason, we also had the ONI experts develop an energy concept for our newly completed building. Like the other two system concepts installed at our facility, the new concept was equally impressive and gave us the assurance that we are optimally positioned for the future in terms of supply security and energy efficiency,” says Managing Director Alexander Stauch, summarizing the reasons for continuing the partnership with the system integrator.
Röchling owes its outstanding market position to its particularly strong strengths in the areas of innovation, production expertise, flexibility, reliability, and service. A key objective in energy-intensive plastics processing is the continuous improvement of energy efficiency in conjunction with optimization in the area of process reliability. Consequently, the company has been pursuing a proactive energy-saving policy in the area of energy supply for years. A current example of this is the new production hall built at the Neuhaus site, with a usable floor area of more than 6,900 square meters.
The efficiency of the media supply is largely determined by the choice of system and the configuration of operating parameters. For this reason, Röchling Medical in Neuhaus has consistently relied on a low-temperature supply and utilization concept, and system parameters in all other areas have been reduced to minimum levels to ensure the best possible conditions for maximum utilization of the primary energy sources used and their multiple use through the application of heat recovery systems.
To this end, the cooling energy supply system for the tooling circuit, with a capacity of approximately 350 kilowatts, was equipped with a so-called ONI winter load reduction system utilizing glycol-free, idle free-coolers. This technology utilizes the freely available ambient air as a cooling medium during the transitional and winter seasons. The electrical energy consumption is thereby reduced to approximately two to three percent of that of a chiller. Due to Neuhaus’s elevation of more than 800 meters, it is effectively ensured that the cold water supply via chillers is kept to a minimum.
The electrical energy consumption is reduced to approximately two to three percent of that of a chiller. Due to Neuhaus’s elevation of more than 800 meters, it is effectively ensured that the cold water supply via chillers is kept to a minimum.
Cooling water with a supply temperature of approximately ten degrees Celsius is required year-round to cool the injection molds. In many cases today, electrically powered chillers are still used throughout the year to generate this cooling water, resulting in significant cost burdens due to high electricity consumption. In Neuhaus, the ONI concept therefore provides for a cooling energy supply via chillers only during the warm summer months and a short transition period.
Heating a facility with several thousand square meters of production, office, and warehouse space typically requires a significant amount of natural gas or heating oil. Heating energy consumption and the resulting operating costs are therefore significant. At Röchling Medical in Neuhaus, a much more efficient approach to heating has been found by utilizing free waste heat: The cooling energy supply for the hydraulics of the injection molding machines and the cooling circuit for the water-cooled air compressors were identified as particularly attractive sources.
In this specific case, injection molding and other production machines require cooling water with a temperature range of 30/35 degrees Celsius and a cooling capacity of approximately 350 kilowatts to cool their hydraulic units. In addition, production processes necessitate a high supply of compressed air. To ensure the best possible utilization of waste heat in this area, water-cooled compressed air compressors were installed. This requires a cooling capacity of approximately 850 kilowatts with a cooling water temperature range of 30/40 degrees Celsius. Consequently, a cooling water supply capacity of up to 1,200 kilowatts is required solely for machine and compressed air cooling, which is available as waste heat after its actual use. From the total available waste heat flow, peaking at 1,200 kilowatts, 650 kilowatts are extracted via a heat exchanger in the first step and fed into a total of three user circuits. In addition to the ventilation system as the main consumer, the waste heat is used to supply underfloor heating and room heating. In a second step, or following the implementation of a further construction measure, the remaining 550 kilowatts of waste heat output will be fed into circuits designed for this purpose as heating energy.
“For the various business units, especially in the production zones, the respective requirements for indoor air quality are clearly defined and must be ensured year-round through appropriate systems. Determined by our sensitive product portfolio, our spectrum ranges from simple ventilation to state-of-the-art cleanroom technology. “Because we know that the HVAC sector requires significant energy consumption, we sought ways to reduce energy usage from the outset and ultimately found a solution through ONI’s experts in utilizing our own waste heat sources,” says Alexander Stauch, describing the challenge and the energy-efficient solution found.
Specifically, the air supply for the injection molding area is provided by a central zone unit. The ventilation unit is equipped with one heat exchanger unit each for heating and cooling operations. The heat exchanger for cooling operation was designed for a capacity of 415 kilowatts with a cooling water temperature spread of 6/12 degrees Celsius, and the one for heating operation for a capacity of 340 kilowatts with a heating water temperature spread of 37/32 degrees Celsius. Thanks to the appropriate thermal design of the heating coil, the heating demand can be covered nearly 100 percent throughout the year using the waste heat from the injection molding machines and compressed air compressors, thereby keeping energy costs at a minimum on a sustainable basis!
In almost no other area does the implementation of an energy-saving measure have such a significant impact as in the cooling water supply. Choosing the right system technology and temperature spread lays the foundation for low costs in primary cooling water generation. The use of heat recovery drastically reduces heating costs because free waste heat replaces expensive primary energy sources such as heating oil or natural gas. At the same time, heat recovery ensures that separate recooling of the cooling water is not required during the period when waste heat is being utilized.
By using highly energy-efficient chillers and an integrated winter load-shifting system, electricity consumption for the chilled water supply to the mold cooling system is minimized. Overall, however, the consistent implementation of the requirements defined by Röchling Medical in Neuhaus does more than just reduce the share of energy costs to a minimum. With this energy concept—planned and implemented by ONI experts—the company is also setting an example in terms of active environmental protection. This example demonstrates that both economic and ecological considerations benefit equally from the implementation of energy-saving measures.
