In today's era of advocating green development and sustainable development, energy saving and consumption reduction has become the key direction of the development of the plastic machinery industry. Many plastic machinery and equipment manufacturers are actively engaged in technology research and development, striving to reduce equipment energy consumption, saving production costs for enterprises, and helping the industry achieve energy conservation and emission reduction goals. Plastic machinery and equipment have shown many breakthrough technical advantages in energy saving and consumption reduction, from heating systems, power drives to equipment structure design, and there are significant innovations in all aspects.
The innovation of the heating system of plastic machinery and equipment has brought significant energy-saving effects. In the traditional resistance wire heating method, there is a large amount of heat energy loss during the heat conduction process, resulting in low energy utilization. Nowadays, new nano heating technology, electromagnetic heating technology, etc. have emerged. Nano heating technology uses advanced nano electrothermal materials, such as carbon-based nano coatings, metal oxide films, etc. After power is turned on, the electrons in the nano material move violently, collide with the lattice to directly convert electrical energy into thermal energy, and the heat is evenly conducted to the barrel through the tightly fitted heating layer, greatly improving the thermal efficiency. Electromagnetic heating technology uses the principle of electromagnetic induction to allow high-frequency and high-voltage currents that change rapidly to pass through the coil to generate an alternating magnetic field, so that countless small eddy currents are generated in the magnetic conductive metal material, and then the material generates heat at high speed. This internal heating method has a rapid hot start, and the average preheating time is significantly shorter than that of resistance coil heating. The thermal efficiency is as high as 90% or more. Under the same conditions, it can save 30%-70% of electricity compared to resistance coil heating.
The optimization of the power drive system is also the key to energy saving and consumption reduction. Taking the injection molding machine as an example, the energy loss caused by high-pressure throttling during the injection molding process of the early fully hydraulic injection molding machine was as high as 36%-68% due to the constant change of load, and the energy consumption cost remained high. Now, the servo power system has come into being. It can supply oil according to the flow and pressure requirements of the actual working time of the equipment, and realize the dual closed-loop control of system pressure and flow. In the high-flow working stages such as pre-plasticization, mold closing, and injection, the motor runs at the set speed; in the low-flow working stages such as pressure holding and cooling, the motor speed is reduced. In this way, the actual energy consumption of the oil pump motor is reduced by 35% - 75%, greatly improving the energy utilization efficiency. Some plastic machinery and equipment also use electric pre-plasticization technology, which can accurately control the screw running position and the amount of sol, directly convert electrical energy into kinetic energy, and independently control can also realize multi-axis linkage, which improves the energy conversion efficiency and reduces the unit melt energy consumption.
In terms of equipment structure design, many innovations also help save energy and reduce consumption. For example, some plastic dryers change the original single-layer structure to a double-layer structure and add an insulation layer in the middle. This change significantly improves the insulation effect of the equipment, heat is not easy to dissipate, the heating speed is accelerated, and the surface temperature of the barrel is greatly reduced, which will not exceed 40 degrees, which not only reduces the impact on the ambient temperature of the workroom, but also reduces the energy consumption of the equipment. Some injection molding machines have achieved the separation of "injection" and "plastic" actions and structures through technical innovation of the injection platform structure. The plasticizing system is stationary during the injection process, which reduces energy consumption and meets the injection molding machine's needs for repeated injection accuracy and response speed.
Plastic machinery and equipment has also made progress in waste heat recovery. Some injection molding machines are equipped with mold heat recovery technology, which recovers the mold cooling waste heat through a heat pump and uses it to preheat plastic raw material particles to further improve energy utilization efficiency. Other equipment can collect the waste heat of the high-temperature barrel and send it back to the drying barrel to achieve waste heat recovery, which can completely save the electricity cost consumed by the drying barrel for drying materials, while not affecting the normal use of the injection molding machine, and is safe and reliable.
In terms of energy saving and consumption reduction, plastic machinery and equipment has demonstrated outstanding energy-saving advantages through technical innovations in heating systems, power drive systems, structural design, and waste heat recovery. The application of these technologies not only reduces production costs for plastic processing companies, but also promotes the entire industry to develop in a green and sustainable direction. In the future market competition, energy-saving and consumption-reducing plastic machinery and equipment will surely occupy a more important position and inject new vitality into the long-term development of the industry.
