Arburg GmbH + Co. KG made its first-ever award for energy efficiency to electrical connector and terminal producer Wago Kontakttechnik GmbH.
Wago was honored for the energy-efficient way in which Arburg machines are used at the firm's headquarters site in Minden, Germany, as well as at the Wago subsidiary in Switzerland.
Ulrich Bohling, managing director for production and quality assurance at Wago, said the firm ``decided in 2004 only to invest in energy-efficient all-electric drive injection molding machines — and that worldwide.''
Wago has been using heat from machines to heat its plant for the past 30 years and its new buildings are capable of using solar energy, he said. A development center has been prepared for geothermal energy use.
Wago's energy consumption related to plastics processing has been ``sinking continuously and it will sink even further,'' Bohling said.
Euromap, the European plastics machinery umbrella association, is working to develop uniform energy classifications for plastics processing machinery under the European Union's energy-using products policy, said Jan-Udo Kreyenborg, president of Germany's Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association.
He stressed that a singled-handed German approach is not advisable. A working group has been set up for injection presses and extruders, with initial results due out in 2009.
The effort ``can be a win-win situation in both economy and ecology, a brainwave gain for Germany and for job security in the country,'' Kreyenborg said.