The goal of the VDMA "Blue Competence" Sustainability Initiative is to address the issue of resource conservation. The initiative therefore supports companies in improving energy efficiency, localizing and consciously using energy sources, consuming raw materials correctly and sparingly while also reducing emissions.

At the company level, resource conservation can affect its entire life cycle, including production and non-production areas. The initiative also deals with future mobility, waste and closed loop recycling management, life cycle costs and the general question concerning quality of life in the company.

Even before partnering with the "Blue Competence" Sustainability Initiative, H. Stoll GmbH & Co. KG had already been working on implementing sustainability measures as part of its drive to effectively conserve resources throughout the company. It has already successfully developed new technologies and solutions that have brought it closer to achieving this goal.

The "fabric take-down in the knitting machine"

Asynchronous motors are generally used in the fabric take-down in knitting machines. Depending on the design, they tend to have low efficiency which leads to high power losses. An asynchronous motor used for fabric take-down at a lower speed results in a major power loss at a higher torque.

The unwanted heat generated in this process is wasted energy that has to go somewhere. Another disadvantage of this motor is that its high temperatures reduce the service life of the bearings and motor. A more energy-efficient motor technology was needed to reduce the power loss.

That's why Stoll came up with a new type of servo motor that uses a servo amplifier, which helps the fabric take-down use 20% less energy. This that not only helps the environment and extends the service life of the electrical components, it saves customers money.

Energy-efficient lighting in the knitting machine production hall

Many machine manufacturing production areas require a great deal of power to keep the large number of machines in operation. More efficient and better lighting in the production hall may at first seem like a minor cost saving measure, but with a large number of machines, it is not inconsiderable and offers enormous savings potential for the long term.

Traditionally, manufactures use fluorescent tube lighting in their production halls, which has average light emitting efficiency and a low service life. Fluorescent lights are usually always switched on even when they aren't needed.

To make the production hall more energy efficient and the machine operators more environmentally aware, energy-saving lights with a controlled switch-on time were installed. This is not feasible with traditional fluorescent tubes because turning them on and off frequently reduces their service life.