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		Environmental Management Sustainability Report 2006

Contribution to Environmental Protection through Products, Technologies and Services (2)

Energy Conservation

	Gas Engine Cogeneration Systems with the Highest Power Generating Efficiency in the 100kW Class

Shinko Engineering Co., Ltd. has added new, 100kW-class units to its SHINCOS-G Series of gas engine cogeneration systems. Cogeneration systems use gasoline engines or other power sources to generate electricity, while simultaneously recovering waste heat from engine operation for reuse. In this way they achieve energy efficiency of 75% to 85%, compared with 30% to 40% for conventional systems. They are therefore at the center of attention in the field of environmental conservation. Shinko Engineering has developed two new models, one rated at 115/kW/50Hz and the other at 118kW/60Hz. Both are highly efficient at recovering hot water and, when used in combination with hot-water heaters or hot-water absorption chillers, make excellent heat sources for air conditioning applications. Incorporating gasoline engines manufactured by Germany's MAN Group, these cogeneration systems are extremely reliable. They also feature a built-in control panel that reduces overall unit size by approximately 10%.

Gas engine cogeneration system (CRN115/118kW)

	Active Vibration Control Device for Use with Reciprocal Motors

In 2002, Shinko Electric Co., Ltd. became the first company in the world to use a reciprocal motor in an active vibration control device that economically and easily reduces equipment vibration. Because the device uses a reciprocal motor instead of springs and dampers, it can be easily adjusted with a controller for ideal motion absorption without requiring detailed spring design and manufacture. In addition to offering superbly efficient and adaptable control, the device has no bearings or other moving parts that are subject to wear and uses no oil, thereby minimizing mechanical energy loss and dust generation. These excellent features make the active vibration control device ideally suited for applications in semiconductor and liquid crystal manufacturing equipment, robots, machine tools, automated handling systems, and many others. Compact and easy to operate, it can be installed on existing machinery by non-specialists.

Active vibration control device

New Emeraude ALE-v Series Kobe Steel has come out with a new, improved line of Emeraude ALE-v Series oil-free inverter compressors that feature a new line pressure control function. The operator merely enters the required pressure in a monitoring device to activate sensors that track changing pressure loss and make the adjustments needed to keep the pressure steady. This function ensures that each separate compressor maintains optimum output pressure for highly energy-efficient operation. Also, the newly designed two-stage compressor body unit, which features reduced in-package pressure loss, offers an 8% improvement in efficiency compared with previous models. Low pressure drops are reduced to one-fifth previous levels through the adoption of a water-cooled intercooler and aftercooler utilizing a plate-fin design. A logic program for energy efficiency is included as standard to reduce electric power consumption, and a permanent-magnet motor has been adopted for the first time in the industry for better efficiency than can be obtained with a high-efficiency induction motor. Energy efficiency is further boosted by the use of a specialized inverter, making the Emeraude Series compressors extraordinarily efficient to operate.

Emeraude ALE-v Performance of the logic program for energy efficiency

Hydraulic Ram Type Rubber Mixer Reduces Energy Consumption Kobe Steel supplies the world with many energy-saving products. One of them is our hydraulic ram type rubber mixer (a weighted vertical rubber mixer) which is designed to increase productivity while reducing energy consumption. Nearly 100 of these have already been sold (30 in Japan), realizing a savings of about 3 million kWh per year.

Hydraulic ram type rubber mixer