Energy Application in Wrench Manufacturing Industry and Its Adaptation Practice in Power Generation Industry
Case Details
Energy Application in Wrench Manufacturing Industry and Its Adaptation Practice in Power Generation Industry
I. Green Energy Transformation of Wrench Manufacturing Industry
Driven by the "dual carbon" goals, the wrench manufacturing industry is achieving low-carbon upgrading through energy structure optimization and process innovation. Heat treatment, the most energy-consuming link in wrench production (accounting for 55%–60% of the total process energy consumption), has seen leading enterprises realize energy conservation and carbon reduction through green electricity procurement, waste heat recovery, and intelligent temperature control systems. For example, Germany's Köhl Company has achieved 100% green electricity supply for heat treatment furnaces, reducing carbon emissions per furnace by 62%; domestic enterprises, on the other hand, preheat cleaning water or supply workshop heating through waste heat recovery, with an average energy-saving rate of 18%.
In the forging process, servo electric screw presses are gradually replacing traditional friction presses. Their energy recovery efficiency reaches 70%, saving 0.8–1.2 kWh of electricity per piece. Jetech's intelligent forging workshop adopts a photovoltaic + energy storage microgrid for power supply, and with equipment cluster scheduling, the comprehensive energy consumption per unit product has been reduced to 0.95 kgce, 27% lower than the industry average. In addition, the powder metallurgy near-net-shape forming technology, which has a material utilization rate of over 95% and reduces energy consumption by 40% compared with forging, has been included in the national key energy-saving and low-carbon technology catalog. After applying this technology, the annual carbon reduction of Sheffield's Yancheng production line has reached 2,300 tons of CO₂e.
The low-carbon transformation on the material side is also crucial. Leading brands such as SATA and Sheffield are promoting the "green electricity smelting + closed-loop recycling" model, planning to increase the proportion of recycled chromium-vanadium steel in their main products to more than 50% by 2026, while reducing the embodied carbon emissions per unit product by 30% simultaneously; lightweight materials such as titanium alloys, whose full-life-cycle carbon footprint is 35% lower than that of traditional chromium-vanadium steel, are continuously expanding their application boundaries in high-end new energy maintenance scenarios.
II. Adaptation and Application of Wrench Products in the Power Generation Industry
(I) Traditional Thermal Power and Hydropower Fields
The bolt fastening and maintenance of heavy equipment such as steam turbines and generators in thermal power plants and hydropower stations rely on heavy-duty steel wrenches and torque-controlled electric wrenches. Special steel wrenches can achieve high-torque operations through impact or extended force arms, adapting to the tightening and loosening of large bolts; torque-controlled electric wrenches can accurately control torque, meeting the constant requirements of equipment for bolt clamping force, and have the advantages of low power consumption and low noise, being widely used in the installation and maintenance of power generation equipment.
(II) Special Wrenches for Wind Power Field
The wind power industry has extremely high requirements for the wear resistance, heat dissipation, and torque accuracy of wrenches, making wind power-specific hydraulic wrenches the core tools. Their pump stations are designed to be lightweight and portable, and are compatible with automated devices for intelligent data collection, capable of handling high-intensity operations on components such as wind turbine towers, blades, and gearboxes, while overcoming the impact of temperature and humidity changes on bolt preload to ensure the long-term stable operation of equipment. In addition, ultrasonic AI wrenches, with the characteristics of stable tightening and high-precision preload control, have also been gradually applied to the assembly and maintenance of wind turbine equipment.
(III) Customized Tools for Nuclear Power Field
Nuclear power projects have strict requirements for construction efficiency and quality control, and electric wrenches for steel bar threading have achieved technological innovation. The type of wrench introduced by CNNC Huaxing's San'ao Nuclear Power Project Department only requires 2 workers to complete the installation of steel bar sleeves, with the time per piece shortened to 10 seconds, which is 45 times more efficient than traditional pipe wrench wrenches, and can avoid sleeve clamping marks, ensuring the high construction standards of nuclear power projects; hydraulic torque wrenches are used for bolt fastening of core equipment such as nuclear reactors and steam turbines, building a solid safety barrier for nuclear energy.
III. Trends of Industry Collaborative Development
At the policy level, the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) have forced wrench enterprises to strengthen carbon footprint management, and leading brands have established a full-life-cycle carbon labeling system. For example, the carbon footprint of Snap-on's 1/2 drive wrench is controlled at 4.2 kgCO₂e per piece. At the same time, the intelligent and clean transformation of the power generation industry has also promoted the iteration of wrench products towards intelligent interconnection and explosion-proof and low-carbon directions. For instance, SATA's "SmartTorque Cloud" platform can realize real-time torque analysis and automatic calibration, helping the digital upgrading of power generation operation and maintenance.
