German industrial machine manufacturer, TRUMPF, has developed a new cooling solution for laser cutting machines called the Eco Cooler.
Conventional cooling systems use fluorinated gases but the Eco Cooler uses pure water as a coolant.
As a result, it uses up to 80 per cent less energy for refrigeration and dispenses entirely with harmful substances.
To date, the solution is unique in the sheet-metal industry.
TRUMPF CEO for machine tools, Stephan Mayer, said sustainability offers a key competitive advantage.
“To ensure their operations remain viable, sheet-metal processors should be shifting to climate- and eco-friendly technologies. The Eco Cooler will help our customers save energy and reduce the use of harmful substances in production,” Mayer said.
“We see an opportunity here to improve the environmental footprint of the industry as a whole and to drive down costs at the same time.”
The Eco Cooler was developed by TRUMPF in partnership with Efficient Energy.
The Eco Cooler exploits the excellent cooling properties of water and works as follows: water flows to heat-generating components such as laser diodes, optics, drives and control cabinets. Having cooled these components, the water flows back to the Eco Cooler, where it is chilled by a heat exchanger in an innovative process involving evaporation, compression and condensation.
“The Eco Cooler works in the same way as a heat pump,” according to Andreas Hultsch, project leader at TRUMPF. “It enables users to control the temperature of components that generate heat during laser processing and also regulate volume-flow rates.”
Dispensing with F-gases eliminates refrigerant costs and cuts a further 12 metric tonnes of carbon. The solution is ideal for all sheet-metal processors wishing to make their operations more sustainable and also cheaper.