German Injection Molding Factory Case Study: 42% Energy Cost Reduction with CE-Certified ZILLION Industrial Chiller
Location: Bavaria, Germany | Industry: Plastic Injection Molding for Automotive Components | Equipment Upgraded: CE-Certified Scroll Industrial Chiller
A medium-sized injection molding facility located in the Bavarian Alps region of southern Germany employs 95 people and operates 14 injection molding machines ranging from 80 tons to 650 tons clamping force. Established in 2003, the factory specializes in producing precision plastic components for the automotive supply chain — supplying safety-critical interior and exterior trim parts to Tier 1 automotive manufacturers serving German OEM assembly plants in Munich, Stuttgart, and Ingolstadt.
The factory holds ISO 9001:2015 certification and has been an approved supplier to its automotive customers for over 15 years. In 2022, as energy costs across Europe surged following geopolitical disruptions to natural gas supply, the factory's management launched an energy efficiency program targeting the largest electricity consumers on the production floor.
An energy audit conducted in September 2022 identified the factory's central cooling system as the single largest electricity consumer — accounting for 31% of total site electricity consumption. The audit revealed three specific problems:
The facility's primary cooling system consisted of a semi-hermetic reciprocating chiller installed in 2008, rated at 180 kW nominal cooling capacity. While the unit had been adequately sized for the factory's original production volume, 14 years of gradual capacity expansion had pushed the chiller to operate at 94% of design load continuously during production shifts. At this load level, the unit's EER had degraded to approximately 2.9 — significantly below modern scroll compressor technology, which routinely achieves EER values of 4.0-4.8 under equivalent conditions.
With Germany's industrial electricity prices averaging €0.28 per kWh in 2022 (compared to €0.08-0.12 per kWh in Southeast Asia), the chiller's 65 kW average power draw represented an annual cooling cost of approximately €127,000 — a figure the management team identified as the single most addressable cost reduction opportunity on the facility.
The factory's automotive customers impose strict dimensional tolerances on injection molded components — typically ±0.05 mm on critical functional features. Temperature fluctuation in the mold cooling circuit directly affects the rate of polymer solidification during the packing phase, which in turn affects final part dimensions. The legacy chiller's analog control system lacked the precision to maintain consistent cooling water temperature during rapid cycle time operation, contributing to a dimensional reject rate of approximately 1.8% on the factory's tightest-tolerance parts — representing approximately €43,000 per year in scrap and rework costs.
As a supplier to the European automotive industry, the factory was required to maintain CE documentation for all industrial equipment operating within the facility. The 2008 chiller's original CE declaration had been issued under the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, but the documentation had never been updated to reflect component replacements made during maintenance events over the intervening 14 years. During a routine customer quality audit in Q3 2022, this documentation gap was flagged as a potential non-conformance that could affect the factory's approved supplier status.
Following a competitive tender process in Q4 2022, the factory selected the ZILLION ZL-60HP Scroll-Type Air-Cooled Industrial Chiller — a CE-certified unit rated at 190 kW nominal cooling capacity, featuring a scroll compressor with an EER of 4.6 and full EU Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC compliance documentation.
The selection criteria emphasized three requirements: CE certification with complete documentation file, energy efficiency specifications verified by an independent test report, and delivery within 8 weeks to allow installation during the factory's Christmas production shutdown period.
The ZILLION chiller was delivered to the factory in the third week of December 2022 and installed during the planned 10-day Christmas shutdown. The ZILLION technical team in Europe supervised the decommissioning of the legacy unit and the installation of the new chiller, including connection to the existing cooling water circuit and integration with the factory's building management system via a Modbus RTU interface.
Commissioning and PID tuning were completed on January 3, 2023, with full production running from January 9 following a week of trial production runs. The complete installation — from old unit removal to full production restart — was achieved within 16 days, well within the available shutdown window.
The new ZILLION ZL-60HP chiller demonstrated verified average power consumption of 38 kW during production operation — a 42% reduction compared to the legacy unit's 65 kW. At Germany's average industrial electricity rate of €0.28 per kWh, the reduction in annual cooling energy costs was approximately €53,500 per year.
The chiller's high EER of 4.6 was maintained across the full operating range, including during Bavaria's coldest winter months (when ambient temperatures below -10°C actually improved cooling efficiency, with power consumption falling to 32 kW) and during the summer peak (when ambient temperatures of up to 34°C still maintained an EER above 4.2).
The digital temperature control system — with PID feedback loop providing ±0.5°C stability on the cooling water supply — eliminated the temperature fluctuation that had been causing dimensional variability on tight-tolerance parts. Within the first month of production at full scale, the dimensional reject rate on the factory's tightest-tolerance components fell from 1.8% to 0.7% — a reduction of 61%.
Scrap and rework costs associated with dimensional defects fell from €43,000 to approximately €16,000 per year, representing an additional annual saving of €27,000. The factory's automotive customers also noted the improvement in first-pass quality rates during subsequent quality review meetings.
The ZILLION ZL-60HP chiller was delivered with a complete CE documentation package including the original EC Declaration of Conformity under Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, a technical construction file, operating and maintenance instructions in German, and a risk assessment document. This documentation was incorporated into the factory's CE compliance master file, and the documentation gap identified in the 2022 customer quality audit was formally closed in February 2023.
Against total investment (chiller unit, installation, commissioning, andCE documentation preparation) of approximately €98,000, the combined annual savings from energy reduction (€53,500) and quality improvement (€27,000) totaled €80,500. The simple payback period was 14.6 months — comfortably within the factory's three-year capital investment criteria.
| Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chiller Power Consumption | 65 kW | 38 kW | 42% reduction |
| Annual Cooling Energy Cost | €127,000 | €73,500 | 42% reduction |
| Chiller EER | 2.9 | 4.6 | 59% improvement |
| Dimensional Defect Rate | 1.8% | 0.7% | 61% reduction |
| Annual Scrap/Rework Cost | €43,000 | €16,000 | 63% reduction |
| CE Compliance Status | Gap identified | Full compliance | Audit closed |
| Total Investment | — | €98,000 | — |
| Annual Energy + Quality Savings | — | €80,500 | 14.6-month payback |
The factory's facilities manager cited four decisive factors:
Following the success of the Phase 1 chiller replacement, the factory has included ZILLION equipment in its 2024-2025 capital investment plan for two additional projects: a second ZILLION chiller for the factory's new 800-ton injection molding machine scheduled for installation in Q2 2024, and an evaluation of ZILLION mold temperature controllers to replace the remaining analog MTCs on the factory's precision tooling.
Operating an injection molding or plastic manufacturing facility in Europe? Contact the ZILLION team for a free energy audit and a CE-compliant equipment proposal tailored to your facility's cooling requirements and regulatory environment.
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