Structure principles of energy efficient machine tools

Activities for energy efficiency increase of machine tools and production systems can roughly be divided into direct efficiency increase on components level and efficiency increase by optimised interaction of the components on the respective higher system level. The paper is focused on system level. In the first part, influences on energy consumption in production are structured hierarchically. General aspects of energy efficiency of machine tools and production systems will be discussed. In the second part, selected solution approaches for machine tools will be addressed more in detail, especially mobility and miniaturization as well adaptivity through redundancy. (C) 2011 CIRP.