Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2016) 85:1339–1346
DOI 10.1007/s00170-015-8033-y
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
An integrated model for predicting the specific energy
consumption of manufacturing processes
Jun Xie 1 & Fei Liu 1 & Hang Qiu 1
Received: 18 June 2015 / Accepted: 25 October 2015 / Published online: 5 November 2015
# Springer-Verlag London 2015
Abstract Due to the soar of the energy price and the
environmental problems are becoming more and more se-
rious, the energy consumption and efficiency of processes
are becoming the focus of academia and industry gradu-
ally. Some significant researches on the energy consump-
tion of machine tools have been performed. In most pre-
vious studies, material removal rate is treated as a com-
prehensive variable. However, it cannot offer the energy
footprint for a machining process and provide the support
for process planning which needs the information of cut-
ting speeds, feed rates, and depth of cut. This paper pre-
sents an integrated model for predicting the specific ener-
gy consumption (SEC) of manufacturing processes. The
dynamic characteristics of material-cutting power and in-
fluence of the machine tools, material of workpiece, and
cutting parameters on the material-cutting energy are both
taken into account in the model. The case study indicates
that the model can be used to predict the SEC of machine
tools conveniently under various machining conditions.
At last, the validation is carried out in different machining
processes; the accuracy and feasibility of the model was
verified by the experimental results.
Keywords Specific energy consumption . Prediction .
Machine tool . Manufacturing process
* Fei Liu
fliu@cqu.edu.cn
1
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing
University, Chongqing 400030, China
1 Introduction
With the soar of the energy price and environmental problems is
becoming more and more serious, the energy efficiency of
manufacturing is becoming the focus of academia and industry
gradually. The machining systems that mainly consist of ma-
chine tools are numerous and used in a wide range in industries.
In china, for example, machining involves over seven million
machine tools, whose total power is greater than 70 million
kilowatts; the total amount of energy consumption by machining
tools is extremely high. A lot of researches have indicated that
the energy efficiency of machining process is less than 30 % [1].
The energy efficiency of a case described by Gutowski is only
14.8 % [2]. As a result, it has great potential for energy savings
in machining processes. In most cases, the electricity consumed
by the machine tools is predominantly generated through the
fossil fuel. The use of carbon-rich electricity generation sources
is critical global concern as CO2 emissions. This implies that the
higher the consumption of electricity in machining process, the
higher the CO2 emission is produced by machine tools. As a
result, the UK government and other worldwide leaders are
making an increasing demand for energy efficiency [3].
In recent years, many famous universities, enterprises, and
international organizations have done a lot of work about the
energy consumption of machine tools and machining systems
[4]. Liu et al. [5] have established a multi-period energy model
of electro-mechanical main driving system during the service
processes of machine tools. Liu et al. [6] have proposed an
energy efficiency acquisition method for electro-mechanical
main driving system during the service processes of machine
tools. According to the method, the energy efficiency of the
machining process can be obtained by the real-time monitor-
ing. Choi et al. [7] proposed a methodology for an estimation
of energy consumption and material flows that are incurred at
a system level with respect to multiple process plans for a part