Environmentally friendly energy from biogas
To ensure sustainable production of the RAUCH machines, energy is fed in from the neighbouring combined heat and power plant owned by farmer Reiner Graf. The combined heat and power plant is supplied by a biogas plant on his farm in Schwarzach. This is operated with 100% locally produced biomass, which achieves a primary energy factor "fp" close to 0.
In addition to 265 kW of electrical energy, which is fed directly into the low-voltage control centre at the RAUCH plant, up to 250 kW of thermal output from the biogas engine is also used to heat the degreasing system at the RAUCH powder coating plant. Since 2015, the "RAUCH Service and Training Centre" building has been heated with the waste heat from the combined heat and power plant. Two large buffer storage tanks were installed for this purpose, which are filled as soon as the degreasing system does not require heat. This investment has increased efficiency and improved the sustainability factor.
The new administration building is also being built to Kfw55 standard and will also be connected to the biogas district heating network. The biogas engine achieves an efficiency of 85% with the dual utilisation of electricity and waste heat.
This increases the efficiency of the biogas utilisation and protects the environment at the same time. What's more, the innovative RAUCH biogas concept supports regional agriculture.
Consciously utilising renewable energy with photovoltaics
As part of the "Sustainable production and manufacturing" initiative, RAUCH commissioned a photovoltaic system at the Baden-Airpark site back in 2014. The large-scale system on the 15,000 square metre factory roof comprises 1,728 solar modules. Under ideal conditions, the system operates with a maximum output of 440.6 kWp. This means that RAUCH is able to generate 12% of its own electricity requirements using CO2-neutral solar energy.
With so much commitment, it is no wonder that RAUCH is listed in the Lean & Green study by Magdeburg's Otto von Guericke University as one of the top agricultural engineering companies in Germany in terms of environmental protection: "The feed-in via the raw biogas plant can be seen as a trend-setting example!"
RAUCH also takes energy efficiency seriously.
Minimal energy consumption thanks to modern fibre laser and bending technologies with maximum efficiency
The use of state-of-the-art fibre laser technology significantly reduces energy consumption in the cutting area.
RAUCH is particularly proud of its three CNC-controlled press brakes and an automatic bending cell for large and heavy parts, which reduces the physical strain on employees. The precise bending of sheet metal parts means that energy-intensive weld seams can be avoided. State-of-the-art 3D design programs optimise workpiece stability through the intelligent creation of edges. If welding does take place, the welding fumes are immediately extracted and cleaned in a central filter system.
RAUCH also sets sustainability standards in sheet metal processing. Thanks to the intelligent laser nesting technology, the surface area of all raw sheet metal is intelligently and optimally utilised for cutting the individual components, and the valuable sheet metal waste, which is reduced to a minimum, is of course fed into the recycling process in the steelworks. In this way, raw material resources are utilised with maximum efficiency.
Emission-free powder coating system
The modern, environmentally friendly RAUCH powder coating system is completely emission-free.
No waste water is produced during washing and degreasing thanks to the in-house vacuum water treatment system. Treated water is temporarily stored in tanks and fed back into the process as required.
There is also hardly any environmentally harmful colour residue in the powder chamber. Powder dust that does not adhere to the workpiece is extracted, cleaned and reintegrated into the coating process.
By using new chemicals, the heat energy consumption within the pre-treatment system was reduced by 40% in 2020. In addition, the use of new powder technologies reduced the gas consumption of the powder combustion furnace by 15% in 2021. In this way, high-quality RAUCH surface finishing also helps to protect people and the environment.
INTELLIGENT WASTE HEAT UTILISATION AND ENERGY-SAVING LAMPS
During winter operation, it is possible to return the filtered and thus purified welding fumes back into the hall as warm air. This creates an optimised, healthy working environment in the welding shop, while also taking immission control into account.
The process waste heat from the single-powder furnace is used to heat the adhesive water dryer. The waste heat from all production facilities is reintegrated using ceiling turbines to heat all factory halls. This means that no additional hall heating is required for the entire production process.
The continuous use of energy-saving light sources with motion sensors also reduces electricity consumption in the office, production and assembly areas.
Conserving resources through intelligent processes and employee integration
Consistent application of Kanban control loops using reusable containers eliminates the need for costly cardboard packaging. The containers pass through a cycle from the supplier to the assembly line several times.
Digitised production drawings and worklists on the production machines as well as paperless order picking and paper-reduced workshop orders save hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper per year.
The integration of the employees on the subject of environmentally friendly production brought forward numerous suggestions for improvement, all with the aim of saving packaging and reducing waste. As a community, these were consistently implemented. Previously expensively packaged purchased parts are analysed in insourcing projects and converted to in-house production parts.