Adaptable Fixturing Heads for Swarm Fixtures: Discussion of Two Designs

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Gagliardi ◽  
Xiong Li ◽  
Matteo Zoppi ◽  
Luis de Leonardo ◽  
Rezia Molfino
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Hydrostatic Pressure ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Mr Fluid ◽  
End Effector ◽  
Innovative Project ◽  
Life Cycle Design ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Magneto Rheological

Driven by the trend of life-cycle design and sustainable production, an innovative project called self-reconfigurable intelligent swarm fixtures (SwarmItFIX) funded by the European Commission is being developed. The project investigates the application of robotic multi agent fixtures for the support of automotive and airplane body panels during their manufacturing and assembly processes. This paper addresses the exploration and development of the adaptable heads, which are the end-effector of the intelligent fixture. The head is able to adapt to the shape of the workpiece and freeze its shape after adaptation to provide stable support. Two kinds of head designs are discussed. The first design uses the pseudo-phase-change properties of a volume of bulk grains (metal sand) which can be clustered using a hydrostatic pressure to conform to a given workpiece shape. The second design investigated uses phase-change magneto-rheological (MR) fluid in a network of channels to allow and block the motion of a crown of miniature pistons. The initial experiments are carried out and their results show the effectiveness of the design.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of the Use of Phase Change Material in an Evacuated Solar Tube Collector

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4146
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Jachura ◽  
Robert Sekret
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Phase Change Material ◽  
Solar Collector ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Production Operation ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Change Material

This paper presents an environmental impact assessment of the entire cycle of existence of the tube-vacuum solar collector prototype. The innovativeness of the solution involved using a phase change material as a heat-storing material, which was placed inside the collector’s tubes-vacuum. The PCM used in this study was paraffin. The system boundaries contained three phases: production, operation (use phase), and disposal. An ecological life cycle assessment was carried out using the SimaPro software. To compare the environmental impact of heat storage, the amount of heat generated for 15 years, starting from the beginning of a solar installation for preparing domestic hot water for a single-family residential building, was considered the functional unit. Assuming comparable production methods for individual elements of the ETC and waste management scenarios, the reduction in harmful effects on the environment by introducing a PCM that stores heat inside the ETC ranges from 17 to 24%. The performed analyses have also shown that the method itself of manufacturing the materials used for the construction of the solar collector and the choice of the scenario of the disposal of waste during decommissioning the solar collector all play an important role in its environmental assessment. With an increase in the application of the advanced technologies of materials manufacturing and an increase in the amount of waste subjected to recycling, the degree of the solar collector’s environmental impact decreased by 82% compared to its standard manufacture and disposal.

scholarly journals A Review of Bioplastics and Their Adoption in the Circular Economy

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1229
Author(s):  
Alberto Di Bartolo ◽  
Giulia Infurna ◽  
Nadka Tzankova Dintcheva
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
Net Zero

The European Union is working towards the 2050 net-zero emissions goal and tackling the ever-growing environmental and sustainability crisis by implementing the European Green Deal. The shift towards a more sustainable society is intertwined with the production, use, and disposal of plastic in the European economy. Emissions generated by plastic production, plastic waste, littering and leakage in nature, insufficient recycling, are some of the issues addressed by the European Commission. Adoption of bioplastics–plastics that are biodegradable, bio-based, or both–is under assessment as one way to decouple society from the use of fossil resources, and to mitigate specific environmental risks related to plastic waste. In this work, we aim at reviewing the field of bioplastics, including standards and life cycle assessment studies, and discuss some of the challenges that can be currently identified with the adoption of these materials.

Life-Cycle Engineering Design

1995 ◽  
Vol 117 (B) ◽  
pp. 42-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Ishii
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Functional Performance ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Life Cycle Engineering ◽  
Engineering Research ◽  
Design Representation ◽  
Life Cycle Design ◽  
Representation Scheme

Life-cycle engineering seeks to incorporate various product life-cycle values into the early stages of design. These values include functional performance, manufacturability, serviceability, and environmental impact. We start with a survey of life-cycle engineering research focusing on methodologies and tools. Further, the paper addresses critical research issues in life-cycle design tools: design representation and measures for life-cycle evaluation. The paper describes our design representation scheme based on a semantic network that is effective for evaluating the structural layout. Evaluation measures for serviceability and recyclability illustrate the practical use of these representation schemes.

Study on life-cycle design for the post mass production paradigm

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
YASUSHI UMEDA ◽  
AKIRA NONOMURA ◽  
TETSUO TOMIYAMA
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Mass Production ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Knowledge Bases ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Simulation System ◽  
Product Life ◽  
Cycle Simulation ◽  
Life Cycle Design ◽  
Modular Structures

Environmental issues require a new manufacturing paradigm because the current mass production and mass consumption paradigm inevitably cause them. We have already proposed a new manufacturing paradigm called the “Post Mass Production Paradigm (PMPP)” that advocates sustainable production by decoupling economic growth from material and energy consumption. To realize PMPP, appropriate planning of a product life cycle (design of life cycle) is indispensable in addition to the traditional environmental conscious design methodologies. For supporting the design of a life cycle, this paper proposes a life-cycle simulation system that consists of a life-cycle simulator, an optimizer, a model editor, and knowledge bases. The simulation system evaluates product life cycles from an integrated view of environmental consciousness and economic profitability and optimizes the life cycles. A case study with the simulation system illustrates that the environmental impacts can be reduced drastically without decreasing corporate profits by appropriately combining maintenance, reuse and recycling, and by taking into consideration that optimized modular structures differ according to life-cycle options.

A Manufacturability Evaluation and Improvement System

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Yannoulakis ◽  
Sanjay B. Joshi ◽  
Richard A. Wysk
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Concurrent Engineering ◽  
Knowledge Bases ◽  
Machining Parameters ◽  
Life Cycle Design ◽  
Machined Parts ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Feature Based Design ◽  
Manufacturability Evaluation ◽  
Quantitative Indicators

Abstract The increasing application of CAE has lead to the evolution of Concurrent Engineering — a philosophy that prescribes simultaneous consideration of the life-cycle design issues of a product. The Concurrent Engineering (CE) systems that have been developed so far have relied on knowledge bases and qualitative evaluations of a part’s manufacturability for feedback to the design engineer. This paper describes a method for developing quantitative indicators of manufacturability. Feature-based design and estimation of machining parameters are used for ascertaining a part’s manufacturing requirements. These requirements are then combined into indices which lead the designer to features that must be redesigned for improved manufacturability. This method is illustrated on a system for rotational machined parts: the Manufacturability Evaluation and Improvement System (MEIS).

Compatibility Analysis of Product Design for Recyclability and Reuse

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Di Marco ◽  
Charles F. Eubanks ◽  
Kos Ishii
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Cost Function ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Computer Tool ◽  
Compatibility Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle Design ◽  
Environmentally Responsible ◽  
Qualitative Knowledge ◽  
Selection For

Abstract This paper describes a method for evaluating the compatibility of a product design with respect to end-of-life product retirement issues, particularly recyclability. Designers can affect the ease of recycling in two major areas: 1) ease of disassembly, and 2) material selection for compatibility with recycling methods. The proposed method, called “clumping,” involves specification of the level of disassembly and the compatibility analysis of each remaining clump with the design’s post-life intent; i.e., reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, or disposal. The method uses qualitative knowledge to assign a normalized measure of compatibility to each clump. An empirical cost function maps the measure to an estimated cost to reprocess the product. The method is an integral part of our life-cycle design computer tool that effectively guides engineers to an environmentally responsible product design. A refrigerator in-door ice dispenser serves as an illustrative example.

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