High customer satisfaction with energy assessment

Aug 6, 2024

Automotive customers voice their opinions about Dürr’s energy assessment

Sustainability, energy savings and climate-neutral production have become top priorities in the automotive industry. Reducing water and fossil-fuel consumption, and minimizing production waste are essential for improving ecological footprints and ensuring leaner production. The energy assessment analyzes a plant’s consumers to provide the essential data needed for this crucial optimization. Dürr asked customers about their experiences of the energy assessment and their thoughts on the results.

Dürr uses a specially developed tool to identify potential savings as part of the energy assessment, focusing particularly on existing plants. The assessment reveals which parts of a plant are especially demanding in terms of material, water, and energy consumption, and how to limit CO₂ and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) emissions. Moreover, the energy assessment can result in significant cost savings. In some cases, customers can expect to reap the benefits of an ROI within a year. One thing’s for sure: the measures recommended by the energy assessment are designed to reduce costs over the medium to long term.

In close collaboration with the customer, Dürr’s team uses the collected data to calculate the best possible savings. The tool then identifies specific measures.

The assessment provides a broad overview of its plant, taking two to three days for part of a plant or five to ten days for the entire plant. Over the past two years, we have conducted eight successful energy assessments, all to the satisfaction of our customers. When our customers are happy, we’re happy.

Tilo Bochmann (Paint Shop Mass Production Planning at VW Sachsen GmbH, Germany), Luis Otaegui Goya (Paint Shop Planning & Assembly at Mercedes-Benz España S.A.U., Spain) and Prasanna Venkataraman J (Deputy Manager, Production Engineering Services-Paint Shop, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd., India) spoke to us about their experiences.

Why did you choose an energy assessment by Dürr, and what did Dürr calculate for you?

Tilo Bochmann, VW Sachsen: “Dürr is not only an expert in plant engineering but also excels in optimizing energy consumption and developing modern solutions for greenfield and brownfield projects. VW Sachsen’s paint shops, which have already been in use for several decades, were assessed for potential improvements. We focused on the two largest energy flows in a paint shop – the air supply units for the spray booths and the oven exhaust air. Specifically, the potential savings for the spot repair air supply unit due to converting from static operation to on-demand operation, were calculated. Potential CO₂ savings were also identified for the ovens by Converting to electric ovens using renewable electricity with a short conversion time. The results included both easily implemented optimizations and complete plant overhauls.”

Luis Otaegui Goya, Mercedes-Benz Vitoria: “We see Dürr as a partner with years of experience in our sector. We wanted to determine the current status of our PT EC plant and the necessary adaptations for energy savings and maintaining the plant’s lifecycle. Dürr’s expertise guided us through this process.”

Prasanna Venkataraman J, Toyota Kirloskar: “Dürr enjoys an excellent reputation as a reliable partner in our industry, offering a wealth of experience. Understanding our plants’ current condition, identifying potential energy efficiency changes, maintaining life cycle requirements were decisive factors for us to maintain operation effectively. Given Dürr’s expertise in this sector, we entrusted the company with this task because we were certain that Dürr could deliver comprehensive knowledge and solutions tailored to our requirements.”

Dürr team that carried out the energy assessment at Mercedes-Benz Vitoria.

What kind of data did you provide in advance, and what was it like working with Dürr?

Tilo Bochmann, VW Sachsen: “We provided actual consumption data for the assessment. The existing plants were assessed based on process and plant schematics, and the potentials offered by radical technological renewal were identified. Dürr understands its customers’ needs, making our collaboration constructive and effective. Recommendations from the Dürr portfolio as well as known potentials were openly reviewed.”

Luis Otaegui Goya, Mercedes-Benz Vitoria: “We provided documentation of the current plant and the process data. All parties – Mercedes, Dürr, and the paint supplier – worked well together to define the assessment criteria. The results were presented to us as a complete final report with recommended actions.”

Prasanna Venkataraman J, Toyota Kirloskar: “We gave Dürr comprehensive documentation of the current plant engineering, plus the process data. Toyota, Dürr and the paint supplier worked very well together. We jointly defined the assessment criteria, ensuring they matched our objectives. This resulted in a detailed final report with specific recommendations, underscoring our effective joint work.”

The energy assessment analyzes which parts of a paint shop have a particularly high consumption of material, water and energy.

What do you think about the results?

Tilo Bochmann, VW Sachsen: “Dürr’s data is technologically sound, with potential savings based on realistic assessments of both the “small” day-to-day potentials and the potentials decarbonized technologies have to offer. Recommendations including using waste heat from the EC ovens locally in the pretreatment plant. Local conditions would have rendered this measure economically viable within three years. But detailed solutions like continuously operating magnetic separators or modular anode control systems in the EC rectifiers are also good additions. Some recommendations are already being implemented, and others requiring considerable capital expenditure are within an economically promising range. The capacity limits during the modification work must be considered in the overall plant process.”

Luis Otaegui Goya, Mercedes-Benz Vitoria: The report was clearly broken down and organized by the individual processes: electrics, conveyor systems, process, and wastewater treatment plants. Required measures were defined for each of these processes. The result was a final report containing all the measures required for renovating the PT EC plants. We are currently using the report and our internal studies to plan the necessary renovations. We highly value Dürr’s assessment.”

Prasanna Venkataraman J, Toyota Kirloskar: “We greatly appreciate Dürr’s thorough assessment and feasible findings. We are actively incorporating the report’s recommendations into our internal planning processes and using the comprehensive roadmap to initiate the necessary renovations. This catalog of measures is crucial for reaching our sustainability objectives in the paint shop.”

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