In This Issue
Featured Articles
- Expert Panel Releases Final Report on Strengthening Advanced Manufacturing in America
- 3D Printed Shelby Cobra Demonstrates Further Advances in Additive Manufacturing
Partners in the Spotlight
- Legrand Energy Marathon Leads to Big Savings
- Better Plants Welcomes First Five Wastewater Treatment Partners
- Third Volvo Facility Certified to Superior Energy Performance
- Honda Recognizes Bridgestone Facility with Three Environmental Achievement Awards
AMO and Industry News
- Save the Date for the 2015 Better Buildings Summit; AMO Peer Review to be Held Concurrently
- Natural Gas Workshop Identifies Opportunities for Greater Infrastructure Energy Efficiency
- Corporate Supply Chain Energy Efficiency Efforts Highlighted in Media
- Field Demonstration Reveals Energy Saving Potential of High Efficiency Gas Heaters
- Updated Tool Can Help Users Improve Energy Management
Welcome Message
A highlight in early 2014 was the announcement of Power America, a National Network Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NNMI) focused on using wide-band gap semiconductors for power electronics. Reducing emissions from natural gas production is a growing issue and I attended a D.C. meeting of the Process Gas Consumers Group, a national trade association of industrial natural gas consumers. We had a spirited conversation and I hope we can find new ways to engage as a group or one-on-one in the next year. In September, AMO’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory worked with Cincinnati Incorporated – a 115 year-old manufacturing machine company – and Local Motors from Arizona to build the world’s first operating 3D printed electric car. Visit the AMO website for more details.
I made a quick trip to Morgantown, West Virginia, for the 3rd Annual TransTech Energy (TTE) Business Development Conference in November. Companies pitched their clean tech ideas like the television show Shark Tank (a personal favorite) and I was happy to have an audience of entrepreneurs to hear my own pitch on the opportunities for start-ups in advanced manufacturing.
In December, I toured Clemson University’s SCE&G Energy Innovation Center, which is becoming a growing hub for clean energy manufacturing. The wind turbine testing facility has the capability to test huge drivetrains for offshore wind farms electrically as well as mechanically – before units are installed offshore. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is also manufactured in Charleston. Boeing South Carolina’s facility fabricates, assembles, and installs systems for rear fuselage sections of the 787 and joins and integrates mid-body fuselage sections.
Innovative manufacturing is taking place across the United States and it was great seeing some of it unfold last year. Thank you for supporting AMO in 2014 – we plan to make 2015 even better.
Best,
Mark Johnson, Director – Advanced Manufacturing Office
Featured Articles
Expert Panel Releases Final Report on Strengthening Advanced Manufacturing in America
The Committee’s final report draws from the expertise of more than 100 industry, academic, and labor group experts to identify additional opportunities to strengthen U.S. advanced manufacturing. The report’s recommendations build upon the three pillars:
Enabling Innovation – The report calls for a standing university-industry consortium to provide ongoing technical dialogue with federal policymakers, additional public-private manufacturing research and development infrastructure, improved standards and processes to enable interoperability of manufacturing technologies, and a governance structure to continue to grow the NNMI. AMP2.0 also pilots a process for developing a national strategy focused on developing three emerging technologies of national importance: advanced sensing, controls, and platforms for manufacturing; visualization, informatics, and digital manufacturing; and advanced materials manufacturing.
Securing the Talent Pipeline – As highly-skilled workers are essential to the manufacturing sector, the report calls for nationally recognized, portable, and stackable skill certifications and more federal support for training, accreditation, and apprenticeship programs. The report also recommends a national campaign to modernize the image of manufacturing, better communicate the values of careers in the industry to youth, and recruit the next generation of workers.
Improving the Business Climate – To improve the business climate, especially for small- and medium-sized manufacturers, the AMP 2.0 final report recommends greater information flow about technologies, markets, and supply chains. The report also supports reducing the risk associated with the scale-up of advanced manufacturing. Recommendations include improving access to capital and tax incentives.
The National Economic Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy have 60 days from the AMP 2.0 report roll-out to submit an implementation strategy for its recommendations to the President. The report has already spurred the Administration to take action, including investing $300 million in emerging manufacturing technologies. For more information, contact Megan Brewster.
3D Printed Shelby Cobra Demonstrates Further Advances in Additive Manufacturing
The Shelby was printed at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL using the Cincinnati, Inc. BAAM (Big Area Additive Manufacturing) machine with support from AMO. The sports car was printed using carbon fiber reinforced-polymer material. The design is intended as a “plug-n-play” laboratory on wheels that allows integrated components to be tested and enhanced in real time, improving the use of sustainable, digital manufacturing solutions in the automotive industry. The ORNL booth at the Auto Show highlighted additional research and development activities in manufacturing and vehicle technologies, including displays on composite tooling, printed power electronics, and connected vehicles.
“In a matter of six weeks, not only have we developed a car, we’ve developed new technology,” ORNL’s Lonnie Love observed, pointing to advances in quantifying the efficiency of the manufacturing process, improving surface finish and energy absorption, and the speed at which the project was completed. “I think you’ll see innovation explode when these tools are in the hands of typical designers.” For more information, watch the full video, visit ORNL’s webpage, or contact Blake Marshall.
Partners in the Spotlight
Legrand Energy Marathon Leads to Big Savings
“By challenging employees to think creatively about energy efficiency, Legrand achieved remarkable, tangible savings,” Mark Johnson remarked. “The rest of the U.S. manufacturing sector now has some great best practices to emulate and I encourage other companies to conduct their own Energy Marathons.” For more information, contact Andre de Fontaine.
Better Plants Welcomes First Five Wastewater Treatment Partners
The Better Plants Program is expanding and now partners with water and wastewater treatment plants. These facilities face unique challenges in managing energy use. Five organizations have signed on as part of this initiative with a pledge to reduce energy intensity by 25% over ten years: Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority, Delta Diablo, Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department, Narragansett Bay Commission, and the St. Petersburg Water Resources Department.
The Better Plants Program is a national initiative that works with industry to set and meet ambitious energy-saving targets. Better Plants will help these facilities develop energy performance plans, improve their energy management practices and save energy. While often publicly owned, water and wastewater treatment facilities resemble manufacturing plants in the way they consume energy. DOE plans to recruit several more partners from the water and wastewater treatment sectors in 2015 and work with them to understand and promote appropriate energy management metrics and practices. For more information on Better Plants, contact Andre de Fontaine.
Third Volvo Facility Certified to Superior Energy Performance
Volvo Group Trucks marked the end of 2014 with an impressive achievement: its powertrain facility located in Hagerstown, Maryland became the third facility within the Volvo Group to be certified to the Superior Energy Performance® (SEP™) program and to ISO 50001.
The Hagerstown facility improved its energy performance by 20.9% over three years to achieve Platinum level SEP certification. It joins two other Volvo Group Truck Operations facilities at that certification level. The company’s Dublin, Virginia, facility improved its energy performance by 25.8% over three years to earn SEP certification in 2012. The following year, Mack Trucks, also part of the Volvo Group, achieved a 41.9% improvement over ten years at its facility in Macungie, Pennsylvania. To date, these three facilities have posted the highest energy performance improvements of all SEP certified plants.
To qualify for SEP, these facilities set up a robust energy management system, tracked improvements in energy performance, and had the results independently verified by an accredited SEP Verification Body. Certification to the ISO 50001 standard for energy management systems is an integral part of the SEP certification process. For more information about SEP, contact Paul Scheihing.
Honda Recognizes Bridgestone Facility with Three Environmental Achievement Awards
Honda Motor Company bestowed three Green Factor Environmental Achievement Recognitions to a manufacturing facility of its supplier, Better Plants Partner Bridgestone Americas, for energy reduction, natural resources, and pollution prevention, respectively. The Bridgestone facility in Wilson, North Carolina, produces more than 32,000 passenger tires daily and it earned the energy reduction award for achieving Superior Energy Performance certification. The certification process helped the facility achieve energy savings of 16.8 percent between 2001 and 2011 by spurring improvements such as shutting down equipment when not in use, quickly identifying and repairing steam and air leaks, and insulating piping. For more information, contact Paul Scheihing.
AMO and Industry News
Save the Date for the 2015 Better Buildings Summit; AMO Peer Review to be Held Concurrently
The 2014 Better Buildings Summit drew more than 500 participants. Speakers from the commercial, industrial, public, and multifamily sectors shared how they draw on energy efficiency technologies, business practices, and partnerships to save money on utility bills, create new jobs, and improve their organization’s competitiveness. For more information, read the 2015 Summit agenda or contact Andre de Fontaine.
Natural Gas Workshop Identifies Opportunities for Greater Infrastructure Efficiency
A November 12-13, 2014, workshop in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, helped identify strategies and technologies to reduce methane emissions from natural gas pipeline systems. The workshop was attended by a wide variety of industry experts from academia, DOE, the National Labs, and the private sector. Discussion topics included improving compressor system operational efficiency and detecting and monitoring fugitive emissions with advanced sensors. The workshop was co-hosted by AMO and the DOE Office of Fossil Energy. Feedback will help both offices with strategic planning for natural gas technology research and development and other activities to increase the operational efficiency of natural gas infrastructure. For more information, view workshop presentations or contact Steve Sikirica.
Corporate Supply Chain Energy Efficiency Highlighted in Media
The efforts of three companies to improve supply chain energy efficiency – Johnson Controls, Legrand, and United Technologies Corporation (UTC) – are profiled in TriplePundit, an online news site focusing on the nexus of the economy, environment, and society. The article notes that more than 60 percent of a manufacturing company’s energy and carbon footprint can reside upstream, so there are significant energy efficiency opportunities in their supply chain.
For example, Johnson Controls now sends energy efficiency experts to supplier plants to provide training on low-cost and no-cost energy efficiency best practices, while Legrand developed a toolkit for its small- and medium-size suppliers to help them assess and determine energy saving opportunities. Similarly, UTC has begun to connect suppliers to DOE resources like energy management webinars and free energy audits from its Industrial Assessment Centers. Legrand and UTC also participate in the Better Plants Program Supply Chain Pilot, a new initiative that helps their suppliers collectively set, track, and meet energy savings goals. For more information, contact Andre de Fontaine.
Field Demonstration Reveals Energy Saving Potential of High Efficiency Gas Heaters
Updated Energy Performance Tracking Tool Can Help Users Improve Energy Management
Keeping up with an organization’s energy consumption and savings can be challenging for even the most capable energy manager. To help address this challenge, AMO has updated the Energy Performance Indicator (EnPI) tool to support users interested in tracking progress and moving toward a standardized, certified energy management system.
EnPI V4.0 is a regression analysis-based tool developed by DOE to help plant and corporate energy managers establish normalized baselines of energy consumption and track a variety of energy performance indicators.
This latest version of the tool, released in October 2014, includes several upgrades suggested by users since the last update in November 2012. The tool now processes energy cost data and calculates estimated energy cost savings. Users can also determine energy savings by fuel type rather than simply calculating overall energy savings. Additional changes include:
- Improving the look and feel of the tool
- Revising the results sheets to be more intuitive
- Enhancing the overall performance of the tool.
EnPI is now a more nuanced application that enables energy managers and others to get a deeper look at energy consumption and savings opportunities. For more information, contact Paul Scheihing.