A framework for characterising energy consumption of machining manufacturing systems

Energy consumption in machining manufacturing systems is increasingly of interest due to concern for global climate change and manufacturing sustainability. To utilise energy more effectively, it is paramount to understand and characterise the energy consumption of machining manufacturing systems. To this end, a framework to analyse energy consumption characteristics in machining manufacturing systems from a holistic point of view is proposed in this paper. Taking into account the complexity of energy consumption in machining manufacturing systems, energy flow is described in terms of three layers of machining manufacturing systems including machine tool layer, task layer and auxiliary production layer. Furthermore, the energy consumption of machining manufacturing systems is modelled in the spatial and temporal dimensions, respectively, in order to quantitatively characterise the energy flow. The application of the proposed modelling framework is demonstrated by employing a comprehensive analysis of energy consumption for a real-world machining workshop. The characteristics of energy consumption for machine tool layer, task layer and auxiliary production layer are, respectively, obtained using quantitative models in the spatial and temporal dimensions, which provides a valuable insight into energy consumption to support the exploration of energy-saving potentials for the machining manufacturing systems.