Abstract
The manufacturing challenges we are facing today need to be addressed in the multifaceted context of economy, society, environment and technology (ESET). Sustainable manufacturing is essential and vital for coping with these manufacturing challenges and is the overarching manufacturing paradigm for the 21st century. However, implementation and application of sustainable manufacturing and the associated key enabling technologies have to be well understood and systematically investigated, so as to achieve ‘sustainable’ manufacturing of ‘sustainable’ products in an industrially ‘sustainable’ manner, and to ensure the approaches/techniques and associated key enabling technologies are easily accessible to the wider manufacturing industry. Furthermore, it is essential and much needed for manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular to access sustainable manufacturing tools, matrices, techniques and ‘bottom-up’ approaches linked to their daily design and manufacturing operations, such as: eco-design of machine tools; low carbon machine/system configurations; computer numerically controlled (CNC) machining strategies and algorithms; energy flow in machines and machining processes; eco-machining processes; machine and process performance assessment; etc.
The aim of collating this special issue is to provide a reference for researchers and practitioners, to present and review state-of-the-art development of sustainable manufacturing and its key enabling technologies. This special issue also aims to identify the development directions for future sustainable manufacturing. Within this scope, there are six articles being included after a thorough selection from more than 24 submissions. The decisions on acceptance have not been taken lightly as all the article manuscripts submitted were of a high standard, while this issue is limited by a restriction in size for publication reasons.
The selected papers cover the following topics.
Modelling tools and matrices.
Energy flows in machine tools and manufacturing systems.
Energy measurement in machining and shop floor operations.
Quantitative analysis of carbon footprint of machine tools and machining operations.
Sustainability analysis of machine tools and manufacturing systems, and eco-factories.
Green manufacturing and remanufacturing.
CNC machining strategies and algorithms.
Manufacturing waste management, recycling and reuse.
Eco-design of machine tools and life cycle assessment.
Manufacturing standards, sustainability and performance assessment.
Design of sustainable production systems and factories.
The significant interest in the subject is evident, with six papers coming from eight academic and industrial institutions in Europe, Asia and North America. We are very grateful to the authors for their contributions and expertise, and for their patience during the editing process leading to the final paper manuscripts.
Finally, our sincerest appreciation is reserved for Professor Paul G Maropoulos, the journal editor, and Sarah Howe and Kruna Vukmirovic at SAGE Publications, for their steadfast support and interest throughout the preparation of the special issue.