Jos Denissen, CurTec
Sustainability and cost control are becoming increasingly important. That’s why industrial manufacturers want more control over their energy usage. This is also the case at CurTec, manufacturer of high-quality plastic packaging for the pharmaceutical, chemical, and food industries. The company, based in Rijen, the Netherlands, operates dozens of energy-intensive injection molding and blow molding machines 24/5. Their core question: how much energy does it really take to make each specific product – and can this be done more efficiently?
Lack of insight hampers progress
CurTec is aiming to realize a climate-neutral value chain by 2050 and places great value on transparency and energy management. However, for a long time, the energy usage per machine or product remained a ‘black box’.
We want to base production planning and machine selection on energy performance. Previously, we relied on gut feeling. Using a large machine for a small product doesn’t seem efficient – but without data, you can’t make targeted improvements.
The company often produces short runs of 1,000 to 10,000 units, which requires frequent mold and machine changes. In such cases, you want to be sure you’re making the right choices. Additionally, reactive power played a role: a lack of insight into energy use can lead to penalties from the grid operator.
The solution: smart energy measurements and Power Quality analysis
HyTEPS installed five BFM-II Power Quality meters in the five main distribution cabinets, connected to the ExpertPower platform. This provided a complete overview of the energy flow – from transformer to individual machines.
The power of these meters lies in their ability to monitor up to 27 three-phase loads per device. This makes it possible, for example, to compare the energy usage of product A across production lines 1, 2, and 3. This reveals which line is most efficient and how the others can best be adjusted.
The meters deliver real-time data, which not only supports cost savings but also directly feeds into production planning. Our finance specialist now records all machine data. This allows us to calculate exactly how much energy each product consumes. Based on that, we can plan which machine is best suited for which process.
CurTec is now using the energy data as a management tool. They analyze and compare products and processes and are now much better able to map out the energetic impact.
Long-term value and future outlook
Monitoring also helps accelerate return on investment. We’ve made significant investments in our installation, so we want to get the most out of it. Thanks to continuous measurements under varying conditions, CurTec can identify patterns and optimize processes accordingly. A snapshot can sometimes be enough, but in our case, continuous monitoring is crucial.
The collaboration with HyTEPS has been extremely pleasant – not just because of their technical expertise, but also because of their ability to make complex data understandable. There’s much more to this project than just measuring. An electrical installation is an extremely complex system with many variables – interdependencies need to be mapped out and understood. To explain complexity simply, you need to truly understand it. That’s what HyTEPS does. They ask questions we hadn’t even considered.
Without high-quality data, production optimization is guesswork. Thanks to this approach, we can analyze, solve, and improve with precision. In the future, we also want to explore simulations based on collected data, automatic detection of anomalies, and further optimization based on harmonics.
Conclusion
Thanks to smart energy measurement and the collaboration with HyTEPS, CurTec has not only gained insight into its own energy usage but also laid the foundation for structural process improvement. More efficient, cleaner, and future-ready – with data as the foundation.