An Energy Model for Discrete Product Manufacturing

Kiran Khadke | MS | 2002

Abstract:

Manufacturers today face greater challenges than ever, to manufacture products of superior quality at lower costs to compete effectively in the global economy. In addition to the pressures of productivity, quality and costs, companies continue to respond to increased concerns about the environment. Some companies view environmentally responsible manufacturing as a method to understand the total life-cycle impact of their activities and products. One environmental measure which generates interest for makers of construction equipment is the energy expended in manufacturing operations.

Numerous tools are available commercially as well as through the U.S. government to aid decision-making in the area of energy utilization. LCA software tools are available to calculate the energy utilized at different stages of product life cycle. Also, detailed analytical modeling packages are focused on identifying how process variables affect performance of unit manufacturing operations (as characterized by metrics such as thermal distortion, forces, surface texture and energy consumption). The integration of process-level models into a manufacturing system framework to obtain the total manufacturing energy is difficult because of the complexity of the unit operation models. This thesis will describe an approach to integrate the energy utilized in various manufacturing operations into such a model.

The objective of this research is to develop predictive models for the total manufacturing system energy associated with processes and products typical of those employed in the construction equipment industry. The energy models for individual manufacturing processes are coded into a software tool, called E-FAB, to facilitate handling. E-FAB utilizes basid design data like product material and geometric characteristics, unit manufacturing processes to calculate the total manufacturing energy for a representative product. Also different manufacturing process plans can be evaluated, to arrive at the environmentally preferred alternative based on energy considerations.

In the total manufacturing energy consideration, E-FAB results for the representative part indicate that casting is the largest energy consumer, followed by stress relieving and welding.

The E-FAB tool will help identify processes and prioritize where energy improvements would be most beneficial. This methodology presents the first step in calculating the entire environmental impact of manufacturing processes by similar incorporation of other factors like emissions and solid wastes.

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