A Virtual Machining Model for Sustainability Analysis

Abstract

Sustainability has become a very significant research topic since it impacts many different manufacturing industries. The adoption of sustainable manufacturing practices and technologies offers industry a cost effective route to improve economic, environmental, and social performance. As a major manufacturing process, the machining system plays an important role for sustainable manufacturing on the factory floor. Therefore, technologies for monitoring, analyzing, evaluating, and optimizing the sustainability impact of machining systems are critical for decision makers. Modeling and Simulation (M&S) can be an effective tool for success of sustainable manufacturing through its ability to predict the effect of implementing a new facility, process without interrupting real production. This paper introduces a methodology that provides a traditional virtual Numerical Control (NC) machining model with a new capability — to quantitatively analyze the environmental impact of machining system based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The objective of the methodology is to analyze the sustainability impacts of machining process and determine a better plan for improving the sustainable performance of machining system in a virtual environment before work orders are released to the shop floor. Testing different scenarios with simulation models ensures the best setting option available can be chosen. The virtual NC model provides the necessary data for this assessment. In this paper, a list of environmental impact indicators and their metrics has been identified, and modeling elements for sustainable machining have been discussed. Inputs and outputs of the virtual machining model for sustainable machining are described. A case study to experiment the proposed methodology is discussed.

Software-based tool path evaluation for environmental sustainability

“…They proposed a hybrid method using discrete event simulation and analytic calculation. Shao et al [14] summarized the procedure of developing virtual simulation tools of machining.…”

Environmental Burden Analyzer for Machine Tool Operations and Its Application

“…A research introduces an importance about the decision of an optimum cutting condition achieving low environmental burden with using virtual reality technology before a real machining operation (Shao, 2010) based on my previous research (Narita, 2009), but any concrete ways to decide the optimum cutting condition from the view point of the environmental burden haven't been proposed so far. This is the first proposition how to decide the optimum cutting conditon achieving low environmental burden as show in this example.…”

Energy Demand Modeling Methodology of Key State Transitions of Turning Processes

“…If energy data and information can be more effectively used and analyzed in manufacturing, it will provide considerable insights into energy-saving opportunities [5]. The machining process, as one of the major processes of manufacturing industries [6], is vital to energy saving and emission reduction. Generally, the life cycle of a product can be divided into several stages: material production; manufacture and assembly; transport; use; and end-of-life.…”