What is ISO 14955-4 - Environmental evaluation of machine tools about?
ISO 14955-4 specifies technical requirements and measures for testing procedures for the evaluation of energy required to be adopted by persons undertaking the design, manufacture, and supply of metal forming and laser processing machine tools in order to achieve reproducible data about the energy supplied under specified conditions. ISO 14955-4 provides methods for quantifying the energy supplied to components in order to assign their share to generalized machine tool functions as described in ISO 14955-1. ISO 14955-4 covers all significant energy requirements relevant to hydraulic (servo) and mechanical (servo) presses, turret punch presses and press brakes, pipe benders, laser processing machine tools, when they are used as intended and under the conditions foreseen by the manufacturer. Examples of how to perform energy evaluation on metal-forming machine tools are given in the annexes.
ISO 14955-4 is applicable to machine tools that transmit force mechanically or transmit energy by the laser light to cut, form, or work metal or other materials by means of dies attached to or operated by slides, punches, or beams as well as to lasers ranging in size from small high-speed machine tools producing small work-pieces to large relatively slow speed machine tools and large work-pieces. ISO 14955-4 covers machine tools whose primary intended use is to work metal, but which can be used in the same way to work other materials (e.g. cardboard, plastic, rubber, leather, etc.). ISO 14955-4 also applies to auxiliary devices supplied as an integral part of the machine tool and to machine tools that are part of an integrated manufacturing system where the energy required is comparable to those of machine tools working separately.
ISO 14955-4 does not give test procedures for the energy requirements of tools or dies attached to the machine tools.
Note: ISO 14955-4 is not applicable to machine tools whose principal designed purpose is:
- Metal-cutting by milling, drilling or turning
- Metal-cutting by oxygen or water cutting
- Attaching a fastener, e.g. riveting, stapling or stitching
- Bending or folding by folding machine tools
- Straightening
- Extruding
- Drop forging or drop stamping
- Compaction of metal powder
- Single purpose punching machine tools designed exclusively for profiles, e.g. used in the construction industry
- Working by pneumatic hammer
- Working by pneumatic presses
Note: Mechanical servo presses are also known as servo electric presses.
Who is ISO 14955-4 - Environmental evaluation of machine tools for?
ISO 14955-4 on Environmental evaluation of machine tools is useful for:
- Manufacturers of power tools
- Designers of power tools
- Quality control personnel
- Environmental bodies and regulatory authorities
Why should you use ISO 14955-4 - Environmental evaluation of machine tools?
As environmental impact is a common challenge for all products and natural resources become scarce, environmental performance criteria for machine tools need to be defined and the use of these criteria needs to be specified. Machine tools are complex products used by industry to manufacture workpieces ready for use or semi-finished products. Their environmental impact includes waste raw material, use of auxiliary substances such as lubricants and other material flows as well as the conversion of electrical energy into heat, the dissipation of heat to the atmosphere or heat exchange by fluids and eventually the use of other resources such as compressed air. Based on relevance considerations, ISO 14955-4 as a part of the ISO 14955 series is focussed on environmental impacts during the use phase.
The performance of a machine tool as key data for investment is multidimensional regarding its economic value, its technical specification and its operating requirements, which are influenced by the specific application. The energy supplied to the same machine tool can vary depending on the workpiece manufactured and the conditions under which the machine tool is operated. Therefore, ISO 14955-4 states the environmental evaluation of a machine tool cannot be performed without considering these aspects.

