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MD & Senior V-P, WIKA India
Manufacturing, the secondary sector that contributes to the GDP growth of an economy is going through rapid transition as mobility and digitisation is being introduced within the folds of regular processes. The disruption effect of Industry 4.0 has a multiplier consequence as sustainability parameter is also built into the next level of technology upgradation. Thus, in the current scenario manufacturing not only means using sustainable methods and processes to produce, but also usage of efficient inputs that will have minimum impact on economic, ecological and social development. This signifies a shift towards using quality machine tools, spare parts and adherence to regular maintenance.
Why green manufacturing?
The digitised industrialisation aims to save resources, reduce consumption of raw materials and minimise environmental emissions. Machine tools come into picture as without quality parts that has functional integrity, low-cost maintenance and minimised carbon footprints through low energy consumption, green manufacturing is a challenge.
Furthermore, as data-based industry and technology-led mobile and digital society is demanding customised technical solution that are robust but interoperable, scalable but has resource efficient designing, boasts of adaptive optimisation qualities but are equipped with time synchronisation, it is important that the smallest part in manufacturing also adheres to the principles of best quality.
International Energy Agency in 2007 had proclaimed that nearly a third of the worldwide energy consumption as well as CO2-emissions are related to the production industry. The scenario has not changed much, but the increasing digitisation holds some hope for industry to become environment friendly, but only if the entire supply chain also becomes green. Sustainable machine tools are the key operative word in a setting where such a ‘static’ input has become the most important component for flexible and dynamic manufacturing processes.
How do we achieve sustainable machine tool manufacturing?
Long-term compatibility between the different life cycles and concepts of machine tool components and electronics is an interesting research topic, especially if we keep environment in mind. A broader investigation of the trade-off between environmental benefits and the negative impact of the additional microsystems, including wireless sensor nodes (WSNs), was conducted in the German technology assessment study, “Innovations- und Technikanalyse Autonomer Verteilter Mikrosysteme” (Autonomous Distributed Sensor Systems) (Schischke 2009). However, till date, a link between the impact of microsystems on component level and modularity leading to further improvement recommendations on the system level has not been established.
Sustainable machine tool manufacturing needs tangible resources from both the manufacturer and consumer. Lead times are especially high in the case of individualised machine tools and assembly lines.
Thus, the three steps to follow while trying to overhaul the manufacturing processes:
Firstly, plan for disposal of old machine tools, which has poor recovery and reuse of waste or idle equipment.
In addition, waste of energy and raw materials in the machinery manufacturing industry is more obvious.
In addition, small and medium-sized enterprises still have serious environmental pollution.
Sustainable steps
As the awareness about sustainable product manufacturing increases, the previous manufacturing paradigm of producing homogenous products at highest qualities and lowest costs, has transformed into demand for production of individualised goods. This manufacturing paradigm is called mass customisation, which among other developments, most recently led to research on reconfigurable machine tools (RMT) within reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS). Machine tool manufacturers are therefore interested in shortening delivery times, increasing flexibility and reducing material consumption in pursuit of ultimately offering superior solutions to customers.
Applying this principle into the context of RMT, sustainability benefits are anticipated by designing building block systems using tiered technological architectures. Lightweight modules are being globally used to provide structural integrity. Meanwhile, adaptable and reusable sensor technology can increase the smartness of the building block system and improve the overall machine tool frame performance in combination with actuating modules and closed loop algorithms.
Efficient tools are the only way to make a process sustainable. What we need are age-old best practices combined with blockchain and AI to make machine tools industry sustainable. A five-pronged takeaway for making manufacturing future-ready:
Regular maintenance and inspections, to stop the machines from wearing out faster. Saving resources is equivalent to earning resources.
Efficiency and precise engineering of machine tools to level off any noise and vibration of the machine is very important parameter for ultimate energy consumption.
Multiple-use machine tools that fit into more than one machine leads to lesser environmental footprint is improved by saving resources, energy, time and space.
Design tools to use minimum coolants and lubricants. They are saving resources both directly and indirectly.
Integrated knowledge of software to make machining process sustainable, which can attain a high degree of reproducibility, thus having a direct impact on the conservation of resources.
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Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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