The Comparison, Measuring & Labelling of Energy-efficient Textile Machinery
for comparing products from different
manufacturers but which still pretend
to present this neutrality to the
customer rely on quick marketing
success and customers for whom the
question is not so critical.
Market transparency is important, but
when it comes to capital goods, labels
are not a cure-all. Above all, they are
by no means a “simple solution” for a
complex product such as a textile
machine. Labelling in mechanical
engineering is subject to demanding
requirements – only if they are met,
can machine labels offer added value!
Beside necessity and feasibility, costs
and benefits of energy consumption
labels for textile machinery the VDMA
criteria in relation to label concepts
provide the framework. This also
means that there always has to be a
verifiable criteria catalogue for a
machine label.
Introduction
There are numerous labels in the
market that are applied to sustainable
products. Some were originally created
for textiles. In the meantime they have
expanded to include textile machines,
or at least consider the energy and
material efficiency of the machinery for
use in manufacturing textiles. even
individualtextilemachinery
manufacturers have created their own
labels to represent the energy
efficiency of their products and their
CO2 footprint in pictorial form. However,
the various activities are manufacturer
and machine-type-specific and have no
uniform and comparable basis, with the
result that their value as an information
source and their importance are
difficult to assess for the textile
manufacturer.
The term “textile machine” stands for
machinery and plant used for the
manufacture and processing of textiles.
As shown in the figure below, the range
of applications covers all processes
from man-made fibre production tofabric manufacture. The extensive area
of textile finishing is also included.
upstream and downstream process
steps are not considered (in Fig. 1 in
grey).
Along with textile raw materials, textile
auxiliaries, water, space requirements
and labour, energy is an important
resource for the textile industry.
combined with a wide variety of
machines and processes, these offer
many opportunities increasing resource
efficiency. Potentials for energy
conservation are possible all over the
NCM-APRIL 2020
49world through a series of optimization
measures. These process and system-
specific measures needed for energy
conservation are comparable
throughout the world – regardless of
geographical and country-specific
conditions such as government
subsidization of energy sources.
The energy cost component in the
manufacture of textile products is
composed of two parts: firstly, the
energy consumption which is
influenced by entrepreneurial decisions
(e.g. production organisation,