Freightliner, the largest heavy duty truck manufacturer in North America, decreased both its production time by nearly one-half and its overall operating costs while improving the paint quality of its chassis and hood product lines and employee morale. These benefits were the result of a successful installation of a curing process in their manufacturing line.

The company's Cleveland, N.C., facility worked closely with Advanced Energy to perform an economic analysis and extensive testing of various paint applications. This led to the installation of electric infrared emitters to improve the curing process, thus improving product quality.

Because of the success of the project, Freightliner is interested in integrating this type of technology into their other facilities. Further, the project won a 2006 Power Partner Award from Duke Energy. These awards are given to companies in the utility's territory that implement strategic energy solutions to improve productivity and reduce operating costs.

The company is the third of Advanced Energy's customers to receive the Power Partner award since 2005. Past award winners were Louisiana Pacific and Andrew Pearson.

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U.S. industry consumes one-third of nation's energy

Industry consumes more than one-third of the energy in the United States. Of this, the Energy Information Administration estimates that more than 10 percent is used for industrial process heating and steam generation.

Advanced Energy helps companies get the most from the energy they need. Through a collaborative process, we help industrial facilities improve productivity, increase profits and become more energy efficient through opportunity assessments, training and decision support consulting.

Implementing industrial process heating solutions that lower costs and improve productivity with minimal environmental impact

Industry overview

U.S. industrial and manufacturing facilities must stay competitive. Rising energy costs and price fluctuations add to the challenges of competing in a global economy. Advanced Energy helps industrial facilities address these concerns through evaluations of existing heating processes and then implementing recommended solutions.

Process Heating
Industrial process heating is a general term applied to any industrial process where heat is required to manufacture a product. Common procedures include curing, drying, heat-treating and melting. Sample processes include curing a coating on a metal product, melting a metal for casting or forming into the desired shape, drying a product to remove moisture and heating a chemical solution to enable or speed up a reaction.

Energy for these processes typically comes from burning natural gas, coal or fuel oil, then transferring the energy through hot air, steam or hot water. However, there are often technology solutions that can transfer energy more efficiently than these traditional methods. These technologies include infrared, induction, microwave and radio frequency.

Services
Advanced Energy works closely with industrial facility personnel to identify the best options for their specific process. Our engineers evaluate existing processes, applying years of experience and relationships with equipment vendors to recommend the best technology.

We begin with a cost-benefit analysis to estimate the payback for any capital investments. The next step is testing in Advanced Energy's laboratory or coordination with equipment vendors to conduct on-site testing. Additional services include workshops, webinars and engineering consulting for a wide variety of process heating applications.

As energy costs and price fluctuations continue in industry, our services and expertise are in high demand. As industry continues to electrify process heating, Advanced Energy's impact on industrial energy savings and economic benefit will also steadily grow.