A Reusable Unit Process Life Cycle Inventory Model for Infeed Centerless Grinding

Environmental impact minimization is an important aspect for improving the sustainability performance of manufacturing processes. Quantifying the environmental impacts of unit manufacturing processes requires systematic modeling of process life cycle inventories. This paper develops an inventory model for infeed centerless grinding based on the unit process life cycle inventory methodology. The developed model estimates the energy consumption, material losses, and consumable fluids, for a typical high-volume production setup. Process consumption data is estimated from parameters directly used for process setup as well as machine and tool specifications that can be easily obtained from technical documentation and product geometrical specification. The developed model is demonstrated using a case study involving the infeed centerless grinding of an Inconel 718 shaft on a Cincinnati Twin-Grip Centerless Grinding Machine.