Honeywell and Toyota to Increase the Energy Efficiency

Diversified technology manufacturer Honeywell has partnered with the European division of Toyota to increase the energy efficiency of the Old Continent’s paint operations. Toyota will implement Honeywell's HC900 Hybrid Controller platform and Profit Controller in up to three of its European assembly plants by the end of 2010, reducing energy requirements and boosting environmental performance at each site.

The two Honeywell technologies will optimize the plants' air supply units and deliver greater energy-efficient temperature and humidity control within the paint finishing spray booths.

"Car manufacturers around the world are facing the challenge of not only building cars that are more environmentally friendly, but ensuring that their manufacturing operations are equally responsible," said Paul Brice, director of Advanced Solutions, Honeywell Process Solutions Europe, Middle East and Africa. "This is the first application of its type anywhere in the world and we are very proud to be part of it. We've worked hard to ensure that our solutions and the expertise of our people can help automakers like Toyota meet similar challenges in the years ahead."

The pilot project already ended in the UK, where energy use was reduced by 25 percent in the paint booths, which can be translated into a saving of 4 percent of the site's total energy consumption. The British division of aims to achieve a full return on its investment in less than two years.

"This is a strategically significant project as we continuously aim to improve our environmental performance of our production sites around Europe," said Timothy Waltniel, production senior engineer, Toyota Motor Europe. "We partnered with Honeywell because it had the technical ability to actually realize the theoretical solution to a kaizen (improvement) opportunity we had identified in the painting process."