Toughglass, manufacturer of toughened safety glass, employs 180 staff & has a production capacity of 4000m2 glass/week. The firm arranged to have an energy survey of its manufacturing processes. From the resulting report they discovered that after raw materials & wages, energy bills were its biggest cost, around £550,000/pa. It investigated the main recommendations identified, which ranged from lighting & compressed air leaks to recycling and installing infrared sensors. One possible area of savings was the fan used in the production process to cool the glass as it leaves the furnaces, which generated energy costs of £58,000. Replacing the fixed drives with variable speed drives would allow better control and the greatest energy savings. Toughglass applied for an Action Energy Loan and was awarded £28,359, saving £45,000/pa covering the monthly repayments 3 times over.
