Selection of a green manufacturing process based on CAD features

Abstract

Environmentally conscious manufacturing process (ECMP) has become an obligation to the environment and to the society itself, enforced primarily by governmental regulations and customer perspective on environmental issues. ECMP involves integrating environmental thinking into new product development. This is especially true in the computeraided design (CAD) phase which is the last phase in the design process. At this stage, more than 80 % of choices are done. Feature technology (FT), the core of the CAD phase, is then used to integrate environmental aspects. Also, integrations realized on CAD systems, such as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided process plan (CAPP), and product life management (PLM), are explored to ecodesign products. This paper presents a new methodology for the selection of a green manufacturing process based on CAD features and CAD/CAM/CAPP/PLM integrations. Firstly, we present an overview of works using FT in the CAD phase to reduce the environmental impacts of a manufacturing process. Secondly, we propose an approach based on FT for selecting an ECMP to promote a new simple eco-design tool which helps inexperienced eco-designers. Finally, a case study is considered to validate the proposed approach and results are commented.

Rapid Development of an Injection Mold with High Cooling Performance Using Molding Simulation and Rapid Tooling Technology

“…Finally, the backside of the intermediary mold was covered with LSR. Note that two distinct advantages including low investment and low running cost of ownership were obtained, which meet the needs of green manufacturing [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. The developed intermediary mold had high load and supporting capacities, which can be used for manufacturing a large RT.…”