What is a servo press?

A servo press uses servo motors for precise force and position control during forming operations.

How do I calculate servo press tonnage?

Use our free tonnage calculator at servopress.club/tonnage-calculator.html

Reduce Servo Press Energy Consumption by 30%: Practical Guide

admin

Energy costs are significant in press shops. Here's how to achieve 20-30% additional reduction beyond the inherent servo press advantage.

## 1. Enable Energy Regeneration

Ensure the regenerative unit is enabled and properly sized. A 400-ton servo press can regenerate **15-25 kWh per shift**. Verify regenerated energy feeds back to the plant grid, not just dissipated in braking resistors.

## 2. Optimize Motion Profile

Reduce maximum slide velocity in non-working zones — going from 400 mm/s to 300 mm/s reduces peak power demand by 44% (power scales with velocity squared). Use pendulum motion for progressive dies.

## 3. Reduce Idle Power

Implement automatic sleep mode after 5 minutes of inactivity — reduces servo drive power to minimum holding current. A servo press in standby still consumes 5-15 kW.

## 4. Power Factor Correction

Servo drives have poor power factor (0.7-0.85) without correction. Install active front-end (AFE) drives. Improving power factor from 0.8 to 0.95 reduces apparent power demand by 16%.

## 5. Schedule Production Intelligently

Run high-tonnage jobs during off-peak electricity rate periods. A cold press startup consumes 3-5× more energy than steady-state for the first 15 minutes.

## 6. Monitor and Measure

Track **kWh per 1000 parts** as your KPI. Unexplained increases often indicate mechanical problems before they cause failures.

## Expected Results

At $0.12/kWh and 6000 operating hours/year, a 400-ton press saving 20 kW average = **$14,400/year savings**.

carlos_stamping

We measured before and after on our 400T line: 42% energy reduction after optimizing motion profiles and enabling regeneration. The biggest single gain was reducing idle power —the mechanical presses drew 65 kW at idle, the servos draw 3 kW. Over a year with our coil change frequency, that alone saved $18,000.

anna_controls

Regenerative braking setup is where most shops leave money on the table. The default drive parameters are usually conservative. On Siemens S120, adjusting the regen power limit (P1243) from default 50% to 80% increased our energy recovery by about 25%. Just make sure your braking resistor can handle the extra load if regen fails.