Mouldshop Barrel Jackets | Intouch & Mouldshop Case Study

Energy efficiency is a critical concern for manufacturers striving to reduce operational costs and minimise their environmental impact. Boddingtons Plastics, a leading manufacturer of Medical & Technical products employing Plastic Injection Moulding processes, faced this challenge head-on.

Through a collaboration with Intouch, their energy monitoring software, and the integration of energy-saving Barrel Jackets from Mouldshop, Boddingtons achieved remarkable improvements in energy efficiency and significant cost savings.

The Challenge: Reduce energy costs and consumption. Improve efficiency

Boddingtons Plastics currently operates a fleet of 39 machines and the energy consumption of these machines has always been a significant operational cost.

Plus, a source of concern for the company’s sustainability strategy. In search of solutions to reduce energy usage and costs, Boddingtons sought to expand their partnership with Intouch.

The solution

Intouch specialises in providing cutting-edge production monitoring software, which includes a new state-of-the-art energy module released earlier this year (2023).

This enables businesses to gain deep insights into their energy consumption patterns. Delivering accurate data and real-time visibility accelerates businesses to make informed decisions that will reduce energy costs, improve efficiency, and lower energy consumption.

Following the successful implementation of Intouch in 2019, Boddingtons managed to increase their OEE by 39%! Since then, Wayne Allen, Operations Manager at Boddingtons, implemented the energy software on a couple of machines as part of a trial and is now collecting real-time consumption data for these machines.

With full visibility of their energy consumption, Wayne could begin to trial various energy-saving solutions, knowing that he had the relevant data to justify decisions and backup investment.

Wayne contacted Mark Guyett from Mouldshop, looking for innovative solutions to reduce their consumption as part of their aim to become more sustainable, specifically showing an interest in their Barrel Insulating Jackets.

Mouldshop’s Barrel Jackets are designed to insulate the heater bands on Injection Moulding Machines to significantly improve energy efficiency by minimising heat loss during operation.

This reduction in energy wastage translates to substantial cost benefits for businesses like Boddingtons.

The Installation

Boddingtons Plastics installed Mouldshop’s Barrel Jackets on several Plastic Injection Moulding Machines for trial purposes. While ensuring optimal heat retention, these jackets also allowed Intouch’s energy monitoring software to gather real-time data on energy consumption.

The software provided Boddingtons with detailed insights into energy usage patterns, helping them identify any changes in consumption and calculate the ROI of the Barrel Jackets.

The Results

The collaboration between Intouch, Mouldshop, and Boddingtons Plastics LTD yielded impressive outcomes:

• Energy Savings: After the Barrel Jackets were installed on selected machines, Intouch’s energy monitoring software detected and identified a reduction in of overall energy usage. This substantial decrease in energy consumption directly translated into future cost savings for Boddingtons, enabling them to further support their customer base in a very competitive manufacturing sector.
• Financial Benefits: With each Barrel Jacket set priced at just £324.99, Boddingtons experienced a rapid return on investment (ROI). At a theoretical 100% machine utilisation, the ROI could be achieved within months at the current energy pricing. Whilst Boddington’s strategy was to fix their energy rates for 2 years back in 2021, during which period energy increased by 65%. The cost benefits will help to balance and reduce to the need to pass on additional cost increases to customers.
• Annual Savings: Post payback, when targeting a 80% utilisation rate, it is expected that Boddingtons could see annual energy cost savings amounting to over £1,000 per machine. This amounts to an annual saving for Boddingtons which will decrease the step change of the significant energy pricing applied over the last 12 months.

The Future

The energy monitoring trial provided Wayne with the data to justify the investment of Barrel Jackets to install them on all 39 machines, which could save them over £50,000 a year in energy costs alone.

This collaboration has created the business case for Boddingtons to justify rolling out the Intouch energy monitoring software to all their machines, enabling them to collect additional factory-wide consumption data which can be utilised to drive additional energy reductions and will reduce the impact of Boddingtons passing on the cost impact of the huge hikes in electricity prices seen in the marketplace.

Boddingtons has worked closely with Intouch and Mouldshop and invested to close the gap in energy price increases to control the balance of cost, to remain cost competitive for its customers.

The continued investment, whilst energy pricing is more stable & looking like it is turning a corner, will help maintain a sustainable future.

Conclusion

The successful collaboration between Intouch, Mouldshop, and Boddingtons Plastics exemplifies the power of integrating innovative technologies to achieve energy efficiency and cost savings.

Through the combination of Mouldshop’s Barrel Jackets and Intouch’s energy monitoring software, Boddingtons can enhance its operational sustainability, reduce energy costs, and contribute to its environmental goals.

This demonstrates the importance of leveraging cutting-edge solutions to achieve tangible benefits for businesses and the environment. And more importantly, it aligns with Boddingtons ‘triple bottom line’ strategic goal (people, planet and prosperity).

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