Okuma announces energy-efficient “Green-Smart Machines”

Environmentally friendly production, reduced energy consumption, and the use of renewable energy sources are all requirements that an increasing number of businesses desire and need to achieve. Okuma plans to provide “Green-Smart Machines” to its customers in the near future to help them significantly reduce operational energy consumption without sacrificing productivity. Okuma is also actively pursuing decarbonisation inside its own manufacturing facilities, having already achieved CO2-neutral production in its main factories.

Accurate, consistent production is notoriously energy intensive. However, economic and societal considerations are pressuring businesses to prioritise energy-efficient manufacturing methods and find solutions that reduce production times and machine energy consumption. Okuma has come up with a solution to the manufacturing industry's dilemma: The company has transformed its machine tools into a new generation of “Green-Smart Machines”. They support efficient and cost-effective production.

Innovative technology for eco-friendly manufacturing

Okuma marks its machines that have been shown to considerably cut energy usage while maintaining optimum precision and efficiency in manufacturing with the “Green-Smart Machines” label. Okuma does this using intelligent technologies developed in-house:

• The proven Thermo-Friendly Concept compensates for temperature fluctuations and delivers exceptional dimensional stability in continuous long-term operation. This eliminates the need to warm up the machines, saving energy and money.
• The ECO Suite plus provides additional autonomous energy-saving capabilities. These include regulating inefficient pump rotation, monitoring the continuous operation of decentralised equipment, and recording CO2
• Spindle cooling systems are also optimised thanks to innovative operation control technology, ensuring a self-sustaining balance between accuracy stability and energy minimisation, reducing energy consumption by as much as 68%.

CO2-neutral manufacturing

Okuma is heavily promoting decarbonisation in its own manufacturing through increased automation and process optimisation. The machine tool manufacturer is also increasingly using renewable, carbon-free energy sources in a bid to phase out fossil fuels as soon as possible. As a result, the important goal of climate neutrality in the three main Japanese production plants was achieved ahead of time. Only green electricity has been used there since October 2022. Eventually, these smart factories will also produce the “Green-Smart Machines” in a carbon-neutral way.

Greater efficiency, more climate protection

“It is our stated mission to find solutions for the manufacturing industry’s social, ecological and economic challenges together with our customers,” says Norbert Teeuwen, Managing Director of Okuma Europe. “By using our ‘Green-Smart Machines’, our customers are decisively contributing towards climate protection and enjoying the greatest levels of output and precision in their work.” That is why Okuma is already working hard to improve the “Green-Smart Machines” even further. The goal is to develop a self-sustaining balance between accuracy stability and energy minimisation across all operating conditions to advance decarbonisation further.

The labeling of the “Green-Smart Machines” will begin in April 2023.