In 2012, President Obama first started discussing the idea of creating sustainable manufacturing hubs with the intention of combining entrepreneurial individuals with innovative manufacturing technology to reduce waste in the manufacturing process.
This month he has announced that the US government will be investing more than $290m to help fund the two new Manufacturing Innovation Hub Competitions, one in the flexible hybrid electronics at the Department of Defence, and one in smart manufacturing at the Department of Energy. $140m will be given to each institute by both federal investment and the private sector.
At a press conference in February 2014, President Obama stated, “We’ve got to make sure we’re on the cutting edge of new manufacturing techniques and technologies”, which of course, is true for all countries including the UK, as this innovative idea affects global manufacturing. With the emphasis on energy efficiency within the manufacturing industry in the USA, we need to feel the pressure of following in their footsteps.
The aim of these manufacturing hubs is to improve energy efficiency and save manufacturing costs by using advanced sensors and cutting-edge process controls. The current prediction is that these hubs will reduce the cost of production by 20% in energy intensive industries. For more information on these hubs, visit Techonomy for a full report.
Energy Efficient Manufacturing in the UK
The Financial Times recently published an article entitled “Concern Grows among UK Manufacturers at Rising Energy Costs”. This article outlines the main worries regarding energy management within the manufacturing industry, and reveals that this has been the subject of many meetings in boardrooms all over the UK.
With almost nine in 10 UK businesses stating that their energy efficiency was at a ‘business critical’ level for 2015, this is an issue that has been on the mind of many businesses. There are, however, numerous companies who provide quick and easy low cost solutions to this problem that will keep energy efficiency at low levels.
Attenborough Doors provide high-speed doors to manufacturing companies that offer an energy efficient solution when looking to reduce energy and heat loss in buildings. These innovative doors also dramatically cut heating costs, with the potential of saving companies a lot of money.
When designing the Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA), The Carbon Trust stated that “Some opportunities to save energy with process improvements can be applied across a wide range of different industries, in particular heat recovery.”
