Sustainable hydraulic systems - less energy, less fluid, less material

00:00:00: Hello, everybody, and welcome to a new episode of our Bosch Rexroth Industrial Podcast.

00:00:09: My name is Robert Weber, and my guest today is Thorsten Kübert.

00:00:12: Thorsten, welcome to the podcast.

00:00:14: Hello, Robert.

00:00:15: Welcome.

00:00:16: Before we start and talk about hydraulics, please introduce yourself briefly to the listeners.

00:00:22: Yeah, I'm Sales Director for Pressure Machine Tools Automotive in our Business Unit Industrial

00:00:27: Hydraulics, and there we support our customers and our sales team worldwide.

00:00:32: Today we talk about hydraulics and we want to talk about energy efficiency.

00:00:38: How do you make hydraulics more efficient?

00:00:43: So we have in general three levers.

00:00:45: The first is less energy, less material, and less fluid.

00:00:49: What are you doing exactly?

00:00:50: Tell us, share some ideas.

00:00:53: So we think the product lifecycle of a product or a system in a circular model.

00:00:59: That means we already think in the design phase about the different phases from commissioning

00:01:05: to production to the service phase.

00:01:08: You already mentioned operations.

00:01:10: So the most consumption is in the operations, right?

00:01:14: That's true.

00:01:15: So when you look on a product, you see that roundabout 1% of the CO2 emissions are there

00:01:21: and the rest, 99%, so approximately is in the use phase, depending on the cycle for

00:01:27: sure.

00:01:29: And let's go through the whole product lifecycle, I would say.

00:01:32: Let's start with the design phase.

00:01:34: What is possible in the design phase?

00:01:37: So when we get the requirements from the customer, we know which kind of machines, which cycle

00:01:43: times, which pressure levels, which cylinders and so on, he has.

00:01:47: Then we can start thinking from the scratch about the hydraulic circuit.

00:01:52: And by that, we can think about each component, each module in the machine.

00:01:56: So make a modular approach to find the best solution for the whole machine.

00:02:02: And then we can think about, have energy efficient components up to energy efficient modules and

00:02:09: have finally then the best solution for the complete system.

00:02:13: Can you share an example when it comes to components, how to make components more efficient?

00:02:20: Two examples I can share.

00:02:22: So we developed in the last years a new LC8X, that's a logic, a cartridge 12.

00:02:28: And there we thought from the beginning, how could we reduce the pressure drops for our

00:02:33: customers?

00:02:34: How can we optimize the variance?

00:02:36: And how can we make it sustainable in the way of reduce the weight?

00:02:40: Finally, to make it recyclable.

00:02:43: And the result was we used CFD simulations, computational fluid designs.

00:02:49: Optimized by that, the pressure drops were able also to reduce the weight by FEM simulations.

00:02:56: We made the thickness and the borax optimized that.

00:03:00: And by that, we reduce the weight, for instance, by 10% compared to the previous version.

00:03:06: The pressure drops are already mentioned and also the materials which we used were up to

00:03:12: 95% recyclable.

00:03:15: What is the second example?

00:03:16: Our second example I would like to share with you an old product.

00:03:20: So an already existing one, we have here our directional valve, the WE6.

00:03:26: I think that's a product all of the hydraulic guys know.

00:03:30: And these products has a lot of different variants in our product documentation.

00:03:36: For instance, we have solenoid with 8 watt.

00:03:39: And when you look in the field, you normally you find that most customers use the 30 watt

00:03:45: solenoid.

00:03:46: And when you check that in the data sheet that the 8 watt is also able to realize flow

00:03:53: rates up to 60 liters, depending on the spool type which we use.

00:03:58: And this you can have a look in the data sheet.

00:04:00: You can save the energy for about 70%.

00:04:05: So 30 watt to 8 watt, it's easy to calculate.

00:04:08: This is not rocket science.

00:04:09: No, no, no, no.

00:04:11: That's not rocket science.

00:04:12: That is making aware what possibilities you have.

00:04:17: And we use that, for instance, in a machine tool.

00:04:20: And when you calculate that you reduce the solenoid to 8 watt and you have 5,000 hours

00:04:26: of working per year with 19 Euro cents, you can calculate easily that you can save 21

00:04:32: euros.

00:04:33: And that's really not rocket science.

00:04:34: That is, use and think of the possibilities you have.

00:04:38: I thought when we talk about energy efficiency in hydraulic system, we will talk a lot about

00:04:43: software optimization.

00:04:46: But now you shared two examples about hardware components and how about physics and how to

00:04:52: handle a problem with a traditional hardware approach.

00:04:57: Or is it also a software approach behind that?

00:05:00: There is many software.

00:05:02: In the examples I showed to you, we use some software tools like CFD.

00:05:07: When we use a motor pump unit, for instance, our customers can use our software tools,

00:05:13: which we provide, like our size and select assistant, which is free available on the

00:05:18: internet.

00:05:19: So they can use it for making the design.

00:05:23: And when it comes to commissioning, we provide in the meantime, also apps, we call them under

00:05:30: H for you, hydraulic for you, PQ app for you.

00:05:33: pressure flow app or XF, which is force and way stroke app. And these apps ensure that,

00:05:42: for instance, a motor pump unit runs in the optimum of efficiency. So it is both. It is

00:05:48: on the one side that you choose the right hydraulic and on the other side to use the

00:05:52: right software to ensure that you drive the unit, the product in the right point of efficiency.

00:05:59: Let's talk about the operation phase. What is possible in the operation phase when it

00:06:04: comes to energy efficiency? At first, it is very important to have transparency. So transparency

00:06:11: is the key for optimization. It is nowadays possible to have the condition monitoring

00:06:19: for each component. You can make that for the complete machine or line. And this is

00:06:24: the base that you think how to optimize your process, how to optimize each component. So

00:06:30: it is a key also for maintenance. When you are aware how your machine is running, you

00:06:37: can for instance, see when you have a sensor for oxygen, how much dissolved oil is in your

00:06:44: system. And when you see there is oxygen level of around about 15% or more, then you should

00:06:52: speak with our Bosch Rexroth services. For instance, how can you optimize that? And we provide

00:06:59: there now also new software based solutions, which we call micro, where we use also computational

00:07:06: fluid design to reduce the dissolved oil in the system by making simulations. And by that

00:07:14: we are able to optimize the complete system. And it's not spongy and that it is perfect

00:07:20: controllable that we optimize and the lubrication the wear have no cavitation. And we have therefore

00:07:29: developed our own acquisition app. And by that we can bring in additional separation plates or

00:07:36: to optimize the dissolved oil rate in the air. Can you share a customer voice? What is their opinion?

00:07:42: For the customer, it is most important that they are productive, that the cost per piece

00:07:48: are on the lowest level, that the machine is very intuitive. And nowadays also that it's energy

00:07:54: efficient. And therefore, we have many customers who ask for an optimization on the energy level,

00:08:02: because they can use that as a sales argument for them. For instance, we have new hydraulic

00:08:09: presses installed with our servo hydraulic pump unit, where the end customer was able now

00:08:15: to show that he can save up to 30% in typical cycles in his machine. And this is now a very

00:08:23: good argument for the machine builder for further installations. For all our listeners,

00:08:28: we heard a strange sound in the back. We are sitting next to a construction site here in Lohr

00:08:34: and now it's coming back again. We hope that's the end that's the last one. So we go on with the

00:08:40: recycling phase. What about recycling? Recycling is two sides important for us. So we are a main

00:08:47: supplier for recycling. On the other side, we are looking in a circular model now that all our

00:08:53: components are recyclable or with a high rate. So for instance, with our new logic element,

00:08:59: the LC8X, we reached 95% of recyclable quote. How important is this topic recycling for you?

00:09:08: As I said, on the one side, it's a customer topic. So we see a tremendous trend that in the world,

00:09:14: more and more customers or more and more country are looking that they increase the recycling quote.

00:09:20: And therefore, we provide there our full package of hydraulic solutions for machines like balers,

00:09:27: like shredders and so on. On the other side, we use also recyclable materials, for instance,

00:09:33: in our own casting, our own forgery to optimize the product carbon footprint on our products.

00:09:41: What else do you have on your roadmap when it comes to efficiency?

00:09:46: Share some R&D topics you're working on. Foundry is a very good point. We think at the moment

00:09:54: about how we can optimize the design of components by functional integration. Have you heard about

00:10:01: functional integration? Very interesting. I love it. When you think about you put on a normal

00:10:06: manifold, you put a pre-fill valve on it. That means you have one manifold with different

00:10:12: functions, then you put the pre-fill valve on it. It's also possible that we can make by a 3D

00:10:17: sand printing a new design of that manifold and we can integrate functions which we had in the

00:10:24: pre-fill valve in the manifold. So we can save their material, optimize the flow rate and for

00:10:32: the customer it is very good because he has less interfaces. He can optimize his piping.

00:10:39: He has less material, so it's more compact, more easy to assemble. So we can bring with new materials,

00:10:46: new technologies, added values for the customer.

00:10:48: Torsten, thank you very much. It was a pleasure to talk about energy efficiency in hydraulics.

00:10:53: Thanks a lot. Thank you.

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