INFOSERVE365 gives Kodak a clearer picture of its energy usage
Former US president Jimmy Carter once said the best way to conserve energy is not to use so much of it – easier said than done when you are a member of one of the largest lithographic plate manufacturing companies in the world.
However, finding savings on power bills makes both economic and environmental sense which is why Kodak Polychrome Ltd turned to InfoServe365 Ltd to drive the energy efficiency initiative at its important UK plant in Morley, Leeds.
The company enlisted InfoServe365’s straightforward, intuitive and flexible data collection system to pin-point where energy savings could be made across the Howley Park facility, which supplies most of the major printing houses with photosensitive aluminium sheets and lithographic plates.
Rather than using an IP network, a site-wide radio monitoring system was installed to provide better data security and to avoid the complexities of a wired infrastructure. Trend and usage data on the plant’s electricity, gas and water is collected on a common platform by the InfoServe365 system, for access by authorised Kodak staff in daily, monthly or weekly reports, either by plant item, time-slot or shift, and in historical or real time.
Kodak operations manager, Phil Ball, said: “Kodak Polychrome recognises that it has important commercial and environmental responsibilities regarding its energy usage. We continually strive to maximise our energy efficiency at all times.
“Since installing InfoServe365 across our plant, we now have detailed, live and historic energy profiling that allows us to target usage areas in our operation where we do indeed make improvements. InfoServe365 has reinforced our commitment to preserve the environment by maximising our energy efficiency.”
Blackburn-based InfoServe365’s expertise was already familiar to Kodak through its sister company, industrial controls and systems specialist Optima Control Solutions Ltd, who had already carried out a complete controls upgrade of a high speed lithoplate production line at the Morley site to help Kodak meet increased demand and reduce waste.
Infoserve365 managing director Michael Hill said of the latest project: “Users only need PC access to operate the system at any time of the day. With only a few mouse clicks, Kodak’s board members, production managers, process engineers and maintenance engineers can all keep tabs on energy usage, from wherever they are in the world. Since we completed this project for them, Kodak are easily managing the day-to-day maintenance leaving Infoserve365 to concentrate on larger scale projects.”
Infoserve365 is a UK leader in managed data collection and analysis, while Optima Control Solutions has developed an unrivalled reputation for designing, building and commissioning high-quality drive control systems.
Established in 1995, the company has grown steadily since then to provide a blue chip service to an impressive client base both here in the UK and overseas, including customers in Europe, China and South Africa.