TAOYUAN CITY, TAIWAN – The Taiwan Printed Circuit Association has published the “Guide to Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction for PCB Factory Facilities and Process Equipment” as a resource for companies in the transition from strategic planning to actual implementation of the net zero initiative.
The guide recommends implementing the process in three phases: Start, Middle and End.
The Start phase requires a full understanding of factory operations, including taking an inventory of each component’s efficiency, digitizing data from large energy-intensive equipment, and transparency of production scheduling.
For the Middle phase, the guide recommends setting up a task force to analyze the factory data. The nature of each low-carbon technique can be assessed using rough estimates of technical difficulty, process impact, engineering time, and energy efficiency yield.
During the End phase, the stability of the low-carbon improvement is assessed. Periodic review meetings can also be used to see if the quantitative targets previously set are aligned with the outcomes. If they do align, then assess the feasibility of rolling out the improvement to other facilities or factories. If they do not align, then carry out a review to see if there were any missteps or inaccurate predictions. Continuous improvements can then implemented through the PDCA cycle.
The guide also includes some common energy conservation and carbon reduction techniques for factory facilities and process equipment:
- Regular repair and maintenance of equipment and conduits: Aging equipment and conduits can lead to additional power consumption while machines are in operation. It may also increase the risk of higher repair costs and production delays.
- Replacement with high-efficiency equipment or components: In addition to upgrading to more efficient equipment, the revitalization of old equipment through installation of more efficient motors, pumps, and rectifiers can all yield immediate improvements in energy efficiency.
- Recycling: Hot water and steam from factory facilities can be recovered and supplied to process equipment that needs warm water. Chemical liquids in production processes can also be revitalized or recovered to reduce waste.
- Use of low-carbon fuel: Boilers or transportation devices can be converted from oil to natural gas or electricity. Natural gas not only produces fewer CO2 emissions compared to fuel oil but also emits virtually no sulfur. Not having to store large amounts of heavy oil also increases safety.
- Smart operations: Factory services can use group control to operate multiple machines in concert with balanced loads. Predictive maintenance can reduce equipment failure rates. Ultimately, advanced sensing technology and real-time data analysis will be used to implement automatic production adjustment for optimal yield and efficiency.
The guide recommends that factories introduce the energy conservation and carbon reduction projects that best fit their situation (e.g., customer requirements, financial report, corporate culture, factory configuration, process characteristics, and so on). The outcomes will vary depending on the actual conditions as well, so it encourages companies to not try to shoehorn the solution. In addition to the self-assessment, discussions must be held with related vendors to determine practical solutions.
