Travis Johnson
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I was reading an interesting article the other day regarding effeciency in the work place. An interesting statistic was this...
75% of all electrical costs are used by electric motors in industry.
That got me to thinking, wouldn't it make sense that if that much energy is used to operate industrialization, that companies could gain effeciency by going back to line shafts?
I mean there is some benefits. A shop that has one or two big motors turning 100% of the time would be far more efficient then say 30-50 smaller electrical motors running intermittently. That is because the start-up factor, and the fact that one or two big motors have rotating mass, and as we all know, a body in motion likes to stay in motion. I would think that would easily make up for the extra friction losses a line shaft system would cause. Besides modern bearing and lubricants are pretty high tech now making friction almost a non-issue.
Going a step further, what would a line shaft operation be like in say a woodworking shop. I have seen them too where you step into the door, flip on one switch, then moving clutches engages the tools you want to use one at a time. No multiple motors to deal with, no starting and stopping, no noise either as in this shop the motor running everything was outside.
I am not sure I will run out and convert my shop to a single 10 hp electrical motor and line shafts, but would that reduce my energy consumption? Would it be better? What advantages and disadvantages would it have? Should we all be gravitating towards line shafts in our shop to conserve electricity and thus energy? Just curious as to what you guys and gals think?
75% of all electrical costs are used by electric motors in industry.
That got me to thinking, wouldn't it make sense that if that much energy is used to operate industrialization, that companies could gain effeciency by going back to line shafts?
I mean there is some benefits. A shop that has one or two big motors turning 100% of the time would be far more efficient then say 30-50 smaller electrical motors running intermittently. That is because the start-up factor, and the fact that one or two big motors have rotating mass, and as we all know, a body in motion likes to stay in motion. I would think that would easily make up for the extra friction losses a line shaft system would cause. Besides modern bearing and lubricants are pretty high tech now making friction almost a non-issue.
Going a step further, what would a line shaft operation be like in say a woodworking shop. I have seen them too where you step into the door, flip on one switch, then moving clutches engages the tools you want to use one at a time. No multiple motors to deal with, no starting and stopping, no noise either as in this shop the motor running everything was outside.
I am not sure I will run out and convert my shop to a single 10 hp electrical motor and line shafts, but would that reduce my energy consumption? Would it be better? What advantages and disadvantages would it have? Should we all be gravitating towards line shafts in our shop to conserve electricity and thus energy? Just curious as to what you guys and gals think?