The Environmental Impact of Pick-and-place Machines

With energy consumption’s overwhelming role in environmental effects, one solution is an energy label for pick-and-place machines. EuP requirements have so far focused on consumer markets, but industrial products also are important. Here, R&D departments can have the strongest future environmental impacts of the products they design. Their downstream effects can be spread across millions of products!

Energy labels are a key part of global attempts to reduce consumption of environmental resources. They inform customers of the future consequence of their purchases. There are now many national and other energy labels covering houses, cars, lamps, washing machines and dryers, air conditioners, etc. The EU Energy using Products (EuP) directive also is working on classifying industrial applications to set rules for future energy reductions. These rules are at least three years away; until then, there are no energy labels for industrial manufacturing equipment.

Electronics manufacturing companies committing to ISO 14000 and other environmental standards must report and try to minimize their environmental effects. For an electronics manufacturer, the most important environmental issues are the materials going through manufacture. For example, cell phone circuits and displays can contain toxic compounds like arsenic (As), beryllium (Be), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb). The plastic shells of the cell phones have been treated with brominated flame retardants. The energy consumed by manufacturing lines is also significant, because machines can be working virtually nonstop 24 hours a day. 

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Author: Sjef van Gastel, Manager Advanced Development, Assembléon