Abstract
This Special Issue features eight high-quality papers, written by scholars from China, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom. These articles are extended versions of papers presented at the 2015 Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing held in Seville, Spain. The articles address important theoretical, methodological and application aspects of sustainable design and manufacturing, such as energy efficiency, zero waste, life-cycle assessment, quality, and sustainable business practices, and discuss how to achieve a balance between environmental and economic sustainability.
Manufacturing is responsible for a significant portion of global energy consumption. The paper by Shokrani, Dhokia and Newman on cryogenic machining investigates the relationship between cutting speed and energy consumption. Through a systematic investigation, the authors have shown that cryogenic cooling can minimise tool wear while eliminating the use of hazardous cutting fluids. The study concludes that cryogenic cooling allows for a significant increase in cutting speed and productivity while achieving significant energy saving. The article by Robson, MacDonald, Kyle, Boehm and Shortis links product and process quality with sustainability. Their research highlights how detection and compensation of systematic errors in real-life factory environments can improve dimensional control and lead to more sustainable production processes. Feng, Tang, Liu, Liu and Setchi highlight the potential of using lattice structures manufactured using selective laser melting to save material and reduce energy consumption. Using theoretical modelling supported by experimental validation, the article investigates the mechanical behaviour of body-centred cubic lattice structures and their variations.
The impact of manufacturing processes on the environment is in the focus of a paper by Cosgrove, Rivas Duarte, Littlewood and Wilgeroth who propose an energy mapping methodology to reduce energy consumption in manufacturing operations. Their approach combines energy management with value stream mapping and lean principles. Energy management is also addressed by Bruton, O’Donovan, McGregor and O’Sullivan who have designed a web-based software tool to assist energy management in the manufacturing sector.
Two papers investigate sustainable business practices in additive manufacturing. Gopsill and Hicks study the effect of scale and scheduling strategies on productivity of three-dimensional (3D) printing services, while Eyers analyses four feasible control architectures employed in current manufacturing practice and explores the underlying linkage between control and change in sustainable manufacturing.
Product design and decision support for sustainability is the focus of an article by Romli, Setchi, Prickett and de la Pisa who propose an eco-design case-based reasoning tool, which is integrated across all phases of the product life cycle. The tool helps industrial decision-makers propose and evaluate sustainable solutions based on cost and life-cycle assessments.
We thank all authors who submitted papers to this Special Issue. We are grateful to the referees who spent their valuable time in reviewing the manuscripts and worked under a tight schedule. We hope that this issue will inspire all authors to continue their work in sustainable design and manufacturing.