NOTEBOOK
| Published date | 01 October 1980 |
| Date | 01 October 1980 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057155 |
| Pages | 28-29 |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
NOTEBOOK
MY congratulations to GKN
Shardlow which has won a
major energy award - thanks
to a programme which
included computer predictions
and basic "good housekeep-
ing"
measures. Savings have
reached nearly one and a half
million therms of gas a year.
The company is a joint winner
with East Midlands Gas of the
1980 Gas Energy Manage-
ment (GEM) Award for indus-
try.
Two Gem Awards, spon-
sored by British Gas, are pre-
sented annually. One is for
industrial companies and the
other for "commercial" cus-
tomers which include shops,
offices and garages as well as
hospitals, and public service
and educational buildings. In
both cases, the awards recog-
nise the achievement of
engineers towards the conser-
vation of energy resources by
the most effective use of gas.
They are presented jointly to
customers and British Gas
reg-
ional Technical Consultancy
Service units which, in part-
nership, are judged to have
made the most outstanding
contribution to the efficient use
of
fuel.
GKN Shardlow
Ltd,
of
Shef-
field,
produce thousands of
crankshafts every week in a
variety of sizes for cars, com-
mercial vehicles, tractors,
con-
struction equipment, locomo-
tives and marine engines.
Over 20% of production goes
for direct export
and
about
70%
of output is exported either
directly or indirectly. The com-
pany has a sophisticated and
modern machine shop with
equipment often designed
in-house, which provides a
range of machining and sur-
face hardening operations.
The company uses natural
gas for billet reheating and
heat treating the crankshafts. It
was realised that many fur-
naces could be improved and
that substantial fuel savings
were possible. The company
wished also
to
improve product
quality by reducing scale for-
mation and improving temper-
ature uniformity in the heat
treatment operation.
The British Gas Technical
Consultancy Service offers a
wide range of engineering
expertise and is available in all
regions. As an initial step, the
company accepted an Emgas
quotation to conduct a com-
prehensive fuel survey of
energy using plant and report
on the findings. This report,
setting out possible alterna-
tives and recommendations,
provided the basis of all future
plans.
The Midlands Research Sta-
tion of British Gas co-operated
by carrying out computer
pred-
ictions of pusher furnace per-
formance under different
operating conditions and they
will undertake further tests on
two of the larger pusher fur-
naces. The survey concen-
trated on five forging furnaces,
there major pusher
furnaces,
a
rotary furance and a heat
treatment furnace. The forging
furnaces were the largest gas
users
with
consumptions rang-
ing
from 300,000 therms a year
to 500,000 therms a year.
Investigations revealed that
improvements in burner and
control systems could save
250,000 therms a year for the
forging furnaces and 100,000
therms a year for the heat
treatment furnaces. It was
believed also that substantial
further savings could be made
from better utilisation of
fuel,
improved insulation, waste
heat recovery and improved
repairs and maintenance.
Once the findings of the fuel
saving survey had been
accepted,
GKN Shardlow and
Emgas prepared a programme
to implement the recommen-
dations. First priority was to
obtain correct data on which to
base a constant energy audit
to measure the energy savings
achieved.
Accordingly, 40
meters were installed on all
major gas using equipment. So
that fuel savings could be
achieved quickly it was
decided to install ceramic fibre
linings on all the
21
batch heat
treatment furnaces. The air//
gas ratio control on some
batch and continuous pusher
forging furnaces was
improved.
The door seals on
some batch forging furnaces
were re-bricked and improved.
"Light up" and heat treatment
cycle times were examined
and rescheduled and the
boilerhouse operation was
reassessed.
In
all,
the company achieved
savings of
1,431,000
therms a
year ranging from 7% to 40%
on different items of equip-
ment. The high velocity bur-
nered furnace is showing a
saving of nearly 20% com-
pared with a similar furnace
with the original burners and is
giving a more consistent
qual-
ity of treatment. The reschedul-
ing of heat treatment times and
the faster response following
the fitting of ceramic fibre lining
has cut the electricity
con-
sumption by 224,000 kWh.
HAVING as a student sat agog
at Professor Harold Rose's
erudite exposition of matters
economic and financial, I
remain ever ready
to
give them
time and space. So herewith
his examination of the reasons
for the persistent rise in unem-
ployment since 1973 as pre-
sented in Barclay's November
Quarterly Review.
"What has really caused the
recession in Britain, relative to
that in the rest of the
world,
is a
combination of two factors," he
argues. "First, the rise in the
'real'
exchange rates,... Sec-
ondly, and above all, earnings
in Britain have accelerated in
relation to the money supply
itself".
Neither monetary nor
fiscal policies can be blamed
as a deflationary culprit and
however much such factors as
the world recession and its
exposure of the underlying
weaknesses of certain indus-
tries have contributed to
unemployment during the past
year or two, a reduction in the
level of real wages relative to
productivity is essential if
unemployment is to
fall.
"Tragically, it has required
the threat of industrial collapse
to make the industrial unions
see the link between real
wages and unemployment,"
continues Professor Rose
"and the lesson does not yet
appear to have been learned in
the more sheltered parts of the
economy."
The article concludes - as
do
I
- that 'a restrictive monet-
ary policy will bring down the
rate of inflation. But... a lower
price inflation rate will not
28 INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT
+
DATA SYSTEMS
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