This document constitutes the application of eco-design standards to machine tools, mainly for
automatically operated and/ or numerically controlled (NC) machine tools.
This document addresses the energy efficiency of machine tools during the use stage, i.e. the working
life of the machine tool. Environmentally relevant stages other than the use stage and relevant impacts
other than energy supplied to machine tools are not within the scope and need special treatment (e.g.
according to ISO/ TR 14062).
Elements of eco-design procedure according to ISO/ TR 14062 are applied to machine tools. Reporting
of results to users and suppliers and monitoring of results are defined.
Evaluation of energy efficiency implies quantification of the resources used, i.e. energy supplied,
and of the result achieved. This document provides guidance for a reproducible quantification of the
energy supplied. It does not suggest a methodology for quantifying the result achieved due to the lack
of universal criteria. The result achieved in industrial application being machined workpieces, their
properties (e.g. material, shape, accuracy, surface quality), the constraints of production (e.g. minimum
lot size, flexibility) and other appropriate parameters for the quantification of the result achieved are
intended to be determined specifically for each application or for a set of applications.
This document defines methods for setting up a process for integrating energy efficiency aspects into
machine tool design. It is not intended for the comparison of machine tools also, this document does not
deal with the effect of different types of user behaviour or different manufacturing strategies during
the use phase.
Lists of environmentally relevant improvements and machine tool components, control of machine tool
components and combinations of machine tool components are given in Annex A. Annex B provides an
example of application of the methodology.
NOTE Certain machining processes and specific machine tools can allow significant changes in the
environmental impact of machined workpieces, e.g. material reduction for aluminium cans by application of
special press technology, higher performance of compressors by machining on precision form grinders[10]
[13]. The environmental impact of such processes or machine tools might be less important compared to the
environmental impact of the machined workpieces and their application. These changes in the environmental
impact of machined workpieces are not subject of this document, but might be important if different machining
processes or different machine tools are compared related to environmental impact of products. For instance,
the accuracy of a machined workpiece might be a significant parameter for the environmental impact of the
workpiece in its use stage, and any attempt to compare machine tools is intended to take this into account
necessarily.