Application of Life Cycle Engineering in Technology …...Application of Life Cycle Engineering in Technology Selection Raposo, A. 2/10 moulds may not be adequate to manufacturing

Application of Life Cycle Engineering in Technology Selection Raposo, A.

1/10

Application of Life Cycle Engineering in Technology Selection: A case study on Conformal Cooling channels production in Injection Moulds

Ana Sofia Raposo

Instituto Superior Técnico – Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica

Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1096-001 Lisboa, Portugal

[email protected],

Abstract: Life Cycle Engineering is a decision support tool that combines economic, environmental and technical

performance, throughout the whole product life cycle. This methodology was applied in this work in order to compare three

technological alternatives of mould production with conformal cooling system. The first alternative regards the mould production

by Vacuum Brazing. The second alternative regards the mould production by Direct Metal Laser Sintering and the third

alternative is an attempt of producing conformal channels by using conventional machining. The economic evaluation is

performed using Life Cycle Cost methodology and the environmental evaluation is performed using Life Cycle Assessment

methodology. Both methodologies were integrated with a Process-Bases Model that allows computing the resources required

of each process. The parametric characteristics of this model permits to estimate the resources for a wide range of technological

production and business scenarios. The technical performance evaluation is based on the characteristics which define the part

quality produced by each alternative mould. The three performances are aggregated through a normalization and weighting.

The weighting is attributed according to the importance of each alternative dimension. The representation of the result is

presented in a ternary diagram which illustrates the best alternative in different scenarios. Several sensitive analyses were

performed to the production volume, mould volume and uptime.

Keywords: Life Cycle Engineering; Life Cycle Cost; Life Cycle Assessment; Process Based Model; Mould Production; Conformal Cooling

System

1. Introduction

Nowadays, industrial companies are in constant

change for improvements with the aim to become

competitive and to stay in business, having in mind the

concept of sustainability [1] [2].In this way, the

environmental impacts caused by the activities of the

company should be considered, keeping its economic

viability as well the technical specifications of the product.

The Life Cycle Engineering methodology emerged in the

context of evaluating the three dimensions (economic,

environmental and technical performance) throughout the

whole product life, in order to support a sustainable based

decision. The application of this methodology in an early

stage of product development allows identifying the

principal activities responsible for the contribution of the

economic and environmental impacts. [3]

This thesis consists in applying the Life Cycle

Engineering methodology in an injection moulding industry

context. Injection moulding is a manufacturing process for

producing parts by injecting melt plastic into a mould under

pressure until the part cools and reaches a solid state to be

ejected. Therefore, moulds must be able to shape the melt

plastic, defining the part volume to produce, promoting an

efficient cooling inside the cavities and ensure

reproducibility cycle to cycle with no defects.

Implementing new technologies is often seen as a

source of strategic competence for improving the efficiency

of the process and the attractiveness of products. In the

injection moulding process, this means, adopting new

technologies capable of reducing the cycle time and

improve the efficiency of the cooling system, since cycle

time and product quality are the main issues in injection

moulding industry.

The introduction of conformal cooling system in

moulds was intended to reduce production issues,

compared with the conventional cooling system. The

conformal cooling system allows a reduction of the cycle

time and also provides product quality improvements,

since the most of product defects are caused by an

inappropriate cooling system. However, traditional

machines as drilling, milling or Electrical Discharge

Machining (EDM) that are used to produce conventional


2/10

moulds may not be adequate to manufacturing conformal

cooling systems. Therefore, new technologies capable to

manufacture conformal channels have emerged, namely

Direct Metal Laser Sintering and Vacuum Brazing

technology. Depending on the aims of the company, the

conformal cooling system may be an advantageous or

disadvantageous option. In a large range of technologies

and solutions, it is essential to know the most suitable

choice for a particular industrial context.

The Life Cycle Engineering methodology is

applied in order to compare different alternatives of cooling

systems and technologic processes. This methodology

allows a detailed study from the raw material acquisition

until the end of life, regarding the economic, environmental

and the technical performance perspectives of each

alternative of cooling system and the technology for its

manufacturing.

The economic evaluation is performed by the Life

Cycle Cost methodology, allowing to estimate costs

regarding all the activities and required resources occurred

during the mould life cycle. The environmental evaluation

is performed by the Life Cycle Assessment, in which all the

activities and required resources are associated to an

environmental impact in a mould life cycle perspective.

The activities and resources required are identified using

the Process-based models, which allow performing an

inventory of consumed resources, having into account the

operations requirements, in order to estimate all the costs

and environmental impacts. The technical performance is

assessed by Multiple Attributes Decision Making method.

The main attributes are related with the plastic part quality

obtained by the different moulds produced through the

technological alternatives. The three dimensions are

aggregated in a ternary diagram, in which the dimensions

of analysis are represented in each axis. This diagram

illustrates a more comprehensive view of the comparison

between the alternatives in different scenarios. The Life

Cycle Engineering methodology allows several sensitive

analyses, having different perspectives in different

scenarios of the alternative.

2. Case Study Description

The case study consist in the production of a plastic

part (plypropylene) by injection moulding. The part

presents geometrical characteristics related with difficult

cooling: circular shape, low thickness and small space

between part’s walls. The cooling systems and the cavities

of the mould are presented in the table 1. The conventional

system is an attempt of to produce the conformal channels

using conventional technologies (milling and drilling).

Description Cavity Core

Cavities

Conventional

Cooling

System

Conformal

Cooling

System

Table 1 Conventional and Conformal Cooling Systems [4]

2.1 Technological Alternatives

The alternatives considered in this work are based

on the brazing and DMLS technologies for the production

of the mould with the conformal cooling system, and on

conventional technologies for the product of the cooling

system (attempt of conformal cooling). In this study only

the production of the mould cavity and core were

considered, since the remaining fuctional system are the

same among the alternatives

3. LCE Methodology application and Process

Modelling

The LCE methodology consists in developing a LCC

and LCA based models, for the economic and

environmental evaluations. Regarding the final product,

also a technical evaluation is performed, based on the

technical attributes. The results of LCE are the combination

of these three dimensions. The LCC model takes into

account the product costs for the several alternatives,

considering all phases of their life cycle. LCC begins with

the identification of the purpose of the analysis and the

definition of the boundaries. Then follows with an

appropriate model (PBM) to estimate costs, where data

information is collected and inputs are introduced in the

model. Inputs and outputs are evaluated in order to obtain

the results. Finally the results are discussed. LCA

evaluates the alternatives in terms of environmental

impacts throughout the mould life cycle. This methodology

is divided in four phases: definition of the goal and scope

of the study, construction of an inventory of all material and

energy flows of product (LCI), evaluation of the

environmental relevance of all the inflows and outflows


3/10

Figure 1 Life Cycle Approah

(Life cycle impacts assessment stage – LCIA) and, finally,

the interpretation of the results. LCC and LCA have in

common the scope, boundaries and the inventory. The

inventory is the result of the PBM, that is applied to each

mould life cycle phase. The outputs of the process based

model (PBM) are used as inputs in the LCC model to

evaluate cost, and in the LCA model to evaluate the

environmental impacts.

For the technical performance of the final product, a

technical model is used to evaluate the relevant part

properties. The technical evaluation is based on the part

quality. Depending on the cooling system, different results

are obtained for the parts properties that influence the part

quality. The technical model relates the importance of the

properties with the product quality and attributes a score.

Finally, LCE results are obtained from a global evaluation

of the individual scores of the each performance dimension

(Figure 1).

3.1 Scope and boundary conditions

In order to focus the analysis scope and limit the

data information requirements, the mould life cycle is

presented in figure 2. The identification of phases is

characterized in detail, defining the boundary conditions for

a comparison of the three alternatives. For the four phases,

material production, mould manufacturing, use of mould

and end of life, the flows of material and energy are taken

into account. These flows allow a better understanding of

all material consumed and wasted as well as the energy

consumed during the operations. At the same time, the

production resources consumed depend on operation

requirements, including consumables, tools, equipment

and labour. The material production phase regards the

production of raw material for mould manufacturing. The

amount of raw material is computed considering the mould

volume and the process scraps from the production of the

mould. The mould manufacturing is related with several

operations to transform the raw material into the final

mould. These operations require equipment, consumables,

tools and labour. The energy consumed depends on the

time to complete the operation and on the power of the

equipment. The use of the mould refers to the injection

moulding process, the production of the plastic part. The

material consumed is the plastic injected into the mould.

This process requires a specific injection moulding

machine and coolant as a consumable to refrigerate the

mould. The main difference between alternatives in this

phase is the cooling system of the mould, resulting in

different cycle times. Since the equipment is the same, the

energy consumed differs with the cycle time. For the mould

end of life is considered that the mould material (steel) is

sold for recycling as well as the total process scraps from

the machining processes

Figure 2 Mould Life Cycle

3.2 Process based Model

The application of process based model consists of

two models: process model and operations model. The

process model is based on engineering, technological and

scientific principles. It relates final product or part

characteristics such as geometry and material to the

technical parameters of the process required to produce

the product. These parameters can include cycle time,

resources and minimum power of the equipment. The

operations model relates the process requirements with

the industrial context, computing the real resources

requirement, such as the number of tools, equipment,

labour, energy and other resources needed to achieve the


4/10

desired product. The process based model allows to

compute costs and environmental impacts for the LCC and

LCA analysis. The application of the process modelling for

each alternative leads to different PBM inputs. These

inputs are correlated with equations which allow obtaining

the outputs. These intermediate calculations compute the

mould volume and the production time parameters, since

these parameters are required to compute the outputs. The

PBM outputs are the required amount of resources. In table

2 are presented the global PBM inputs types as well as the

outputs for the three mould production alternatives. Table

3 presents the PBM inputs and outputs for the injection

moulding process

3.3 LCC

Having defined the scope and modelled the

processes it is possible to compute the total cost to

produce the part. The price factors are applied to each LCC

model input PBM outputs) for the three alternatives

throughout the life cycle. The total cost is the sum of two

main categories: Variable Cost and Fixed Costs. Variable

costs (can be divided in Material Cost, Energy Cost and

Process Cost. Fixed costs can be divided in Equipment

Cost, Cutting Tools cost, Building Cost and Maintenance.

3.4 LCA

The inventory resulted from the PBM (energy,

material and consumables) are evaluated according to

their environmental categories. The environmental

categories are combined in three damage categories:

human health, ecosystems and resources. Damage

categories are submitted to a weighting system, resulting

the eco indicator. The ReCiPe Method is a recent and

updated weighting system that assesses the impacts on

human health, ecosystems and resources [5].The SimaPro

software simulates this methodology [6]. The LCIA model

inputs are introduced in the software and the eco indicators

are estimated by ReCiPe method.

3.5 Technical Performance

The technical evaluation is based on the quality of the final

product (plastic part). The proposed technical model

relates the part attributes with the quality characteristics of

the part. The attributes are related with the performance of

the injection moulding process as regards the part quality

characteristics. The main attributes considered are Surface

Defects, Strength and Dimensional Accuracy. The main

quality characteristics considered are warpage, weld lines,

residual stresses and air traps. The Moldflow software

simulates the injection moulding process. Regarding the

two cooling systems design, two analysis were performed

in order to obtain the quality characteristics results (Table

4).

Table 2 PBM inputs and intermediate calculations for

outputs of mould production

Table 3PBM inputs and outputs of injection moulding

process.


5/10

Table 4 Attributes and quality characteristics relation of the technical model

4. Results and Sensitive Analyses

.4.1 LCC Results

The LCC analysis is the integration of all the life cycle stage

costs, considering the annual production volume of 2000

plastic parts. Table 6.15 presents the life cycle costs of

each alternative mould. In the cost dimension, different

costs are incurred in difference periods (years). The

injection mould is an investment in the beginning of the

production and will be used for the production of

approximately 1 million parts. These parts, depending on

the production volume, may be produced throughout

several years (to a maximum of the considered mould life).

Therefore, the mould is allocated to the part production as

an annual fixed costs, being the years dependent on the

production volume and mould life. The mould recycling in

its end of life is also added by computing its present value,

considering 8 years. Table 5 shows that the mould

production phase has the higher impact on costs in the

mould life cycle. The laser is the alternative less

economically favourable. The contrary is verified for

conventional alternative which presents the lower cost for

the production volume of parts considered.

Table 5 LCC results of the three alternatives

The process based models have the advantage to

assess the behaviour of costs with the variation of

operations parameters. The figure 3 shows the evolution of

costs per part with the increase of annual production

volume. The changing of production volume results into a

significant reduction of cost per part which is verified in all

the alternatives. This is a typical behaviour of the capital

utilization of the equipment and tools. This fact is a result

of the distribution of the capital utilization of the equipment

and the mould for all the parts produced. This analysis

confirms that alternative Brazing is the best option for all

production volumes above 5000 parts. Around 60 000

parts is concluded that the alternative 3 presents the higher

cost per part. This situation can be explained by the longer

cycle time of injection moulding in the alternative

Conventional.

Figure 3 Evolution of Costs with Annual Production Volume

4.2 LCA Results

LCA analysis integrates all the environmental

impacts along the life cycle of the mould caused by the

materials, consumables and energy comsuption. Table 6.

shows the total points of the environmental impact ,

obtained by the ReCiPe method for the three alternatives.

The mould production phase has the higher environmental

impact, in the three alternatives. The alternative Brazing is

the alternative with higher environmental impact and the

Laser is the alternative with lower environmental impact, in

the mould life cycle. Figure 4 illustrates the three damage

categories affected by the resources consumed, for an

annual production volume of 2000 parts. The most damage

category affected by the resources required for each

alternative is the resources category, followed by the

human health category. The percentage of impact in each

category is similar for all alternatives.

Weight of properties

Matrix Surface Defects Strength Dimensional Accuracy

Warpage - -

Weld line -

Residual Stress - -

Air trap - -

Weight of Attributes A B C 1

Attributes

Qu

alit

yC

har

acte

rist

ics


6/10

Table 6 LCA Resutls of the three alternatives

Figure 4 Damage Categories

4.3 Technical Performance

The quality values for quality characteristics are

obtained from the analyses of the two cooling systems

using Moldflow software. For the technical evaluation is

necessary to distribute weights of importance for each

attribute. In this study is assumed a generic part and for

this reason the importance of the attributes are equal for

the technical performance. So, the weights are distributed

equally for the three attributes: surface defects, strength

and dimensional accuracy. Considering this weighting

system, the technical model computes the scores for

conventional and conformal cooling system as shown in

table 7. The total score is the sum of the adimensional

results of each quality characteristic, multiplied by the

respective weight. The scale is from 0 to 10 points (0 for

the worst technical performance and 10 for the best). The

conformal cooling system presents a higher technical

score. This means that the alternatives Brazing and Laser

are better in the technical performance than the alternative

Conventional. The difference in the results between the

two cooling systems shows the efficiency level of

conformal cooling as compared to the conventional. The

conformal system presents less warpage, no weld lines,

low residual stress and low air traps. This results in an

attenuation of the surface defects, more strength and

dimensional accuracy in the part produced.

Table 7 Technical Score

4.4 Global Evaluation

With the results obtained from the economic,

environmental and technical performance dimensions, a

global evaluation can be performed. Since the results from

the three dimensions are in different units, they are first

adimensionalized into a 10 point scale to allow the

attribution of importance weights.

To illustrate the existing possibilities regarding

each dimension weights, a ternary diagram is developed

(figure 5). The sum of the three dimensions must be 100%.

The diagram not only illustrates the ‘’best alternative’’ for a

particular set of importance weights, but also the domain of

weights for each ‘’best alternative’’. Different combinations

of weights can result in different solutions. The attribution

of weights depends on the strategic goal of the industry.

The Points A, B, and C represent different strategic goals,

identifying the adequate alternative to select.

Figure 5 Ternary diagram for production volume of 2000

parts (Economic importance, Environmental importance,

Technical importance) – (90%,0%,10%), B(40%,50%,10%)

and C(30%,10%,60%)

Changing the production volume the total cost (LCC) and

total environmental impact (LCA) also change.

Consequently, the score of the global evaluation in each

dimension also change. For this production volume, the

alternative Conventional doesn’t have a maximum score in

any dimension, so this alternative will not appear in the

ternary diagram. The figure 6 illustrates the new ternary

diagram for the production volume of 100 000 parts. The


7/10

alternative Brazing is an economically based decision and

the alternative Laser is an environmental based decision.

Figure 6 Ternary diagram for production volume of 100 000

parts

4.5 Technology performance mapping

This analysis focus on the influence of the mass

on mould manufacturing costs with the same cooling

system (Alternative Brazing and Laser), considering a

generic part. For the alternative Brazing, the amount of

material, besides its acquisition cost, influence the cost in

two processes: Machining and Brazing. The operation time

of machining increases not only with the amount of material

to be removed but also with the complexity of the part

geometry. The cycle time of brazing increases with the

thickness of the part. However, for this analysis the

difference of time required for each mass considered is

insignificant, since 8 hours (in a total of 10 hours) of the

brazing cycle is related with the increasing and decreasing

the temperature of the furnace and with the heat treatment,

which is the same for any mass of steel.

For alterative Laser, the cycle time of the operation

depends on the scan velocity and on the volume of material

to deposit. So the amount of material has impact on costs

due to the material acquisition and the production.

Figure 7 shows the influence of the mass on costs for

alternative Brazing and Laser. Results show that the cost

in the alternative Laser is very sensitive to the mass

change. On the other hand, the variation of mass in the

alternative 1 has a small impact on cost, for the same time

of machining. Increasing the complexity of geometry part,

the time of machining increases, causing an increasing of

cost in the alternative Brazing.

Furthermore, it is concluded from the figure 7 that for the

production of parts with smaller dimensions, the DMLS is

an advantageous option when compared with Brazing

technology.

4.6 Manufacturing - Investment Appraisal

In this analysis is considered a scenario where the

goal of the company is the production of moulds with high

technical performance. As presented previously, the mould

with the conformal cooling system presents better results

in the technical performance than the mould with

conventional cooling system. So, the company must select

between the DMLS and brazing technologies for the

production of the mould. Also presented previously, for

moulds with higher volume, the cost per unit in brazing

technology is lower than DMLS. In this case, for mould with

higher volume, the brazing technology is an advantageous

option. As the equipment required for the production with

the DMLS technology represents a higher investment, its

capital utilization is crucial. Therefore, in this analysis the

alternative conformal technologies are analysed in terms of

investment in equipment and number of moulds produced

with conformal cooling in the company.

For this analysis a mould with 0.5 kg is considered,

as it is a case where the DMLS technology presents lower

mould production costs. The production costs for each

alternative technologies are presented in table 8.

Table 8 Cost per mould pf the alternative Brazing and Laser,

for a mass of 0. 5 kg. The Net Present Value (NPV) method is used for

this investment appraisal analysis. Considering that the

price of the mould to the company’s clients is the same for

both alternatives, the difference of Net Present Value

(NPV) between DMLS and Brazing, can be computed by

equation 6.1When NPV achieves positive values, it means

that DMLS technology is more beneficial than brazing

technology. Table 9 shows the variables used to estimate

the difference of NPV.

Table 9 Data information for the investment appraisal


8/10

Figure 7 influence of the mass on costs for the mould manufacturing Figure 8 Investment appraisal – Manufacturing

in the alternative Brazing and Laser

Figure 8 illustrates the results of NPV with the

increase of production volume. NPV is positive for a

production volume higher than 24 units. If the company

produces more than 24 moulds with conformal cooling per

year, then the best decision economically is to invest in

DMLS technology. Notice that this is computed for a

particular mould volume. For smaller moulds, the threshold

would be lower regarding the annual production volume of

moulds

4.7 Make or buy Analysis

The scenario make or buy consists of identifying

the situations where the company must invest on the

equipment for the production of a mould with conformal

cooling system instead of buying the same mould to

another company.

Figure 9 shows the total production cost of the

mould for a certain uptime of the machine per day, in the

case of brazing technology. The concept of uptime regards

the productive time, this is, the time in which the machine

is producing. There is a reduction of the cost per hour of

production when uptime increases. It means that, if a

company invests in the equipment required for the brazing

technology, the productive time must be high to justify the

acquisition cost of the equipment. The x -axis of the graphic

in figure 9, represents the profit margin of the mould

considering the mould production is subcontracted to

another company, attributed by the other company. In this

case that when the profit margin increases, the price of the

mould (subcontracted) ncreases. Figure 9 relates the

production cost of the mould for several uptimes values of

the machine, with the price of the mould for several profit

margins. For example, if the profit margin is 40%, it means

that the company should invest on the equipment only if

the uptime of the machine is more than 4.5 hours per day.

In figure 10 is presented a similar analysis, but in this case

regards the DMLS technology. Another example,

considering the production by DMLS technology, if the

profit margin is 20%, the company should invest on the

equipment only if the uptime of the machine is more than

5.5 hours per day.

4.8 Company context – Business

Within a business angle, a company can invest in

new technologies that allow improving the productivity of

the process, as well as improving the part quality regarding

surface defects, strength and dimensional accuracy

(Project 2) or maintain the same business model and use

conventional technologies (Project 1). These alternative

projects are summarized in table 10. In order to understand

the potential of investing in new technologies for a

company in this case study, an investment appraisal

analysis is performed. Having the production costs of each

option computed through the PBM, it is possible to

determine the contribution margin difference that levels

both projects regarding the NPV. Having this difference

defined, it is also possible to define the price difference that

evens the NPV of the projects.

Table 10 Projects description

Notice that the initial investment of the project 2 is

higher than the project 1. For this reason, the contribution

margin must be higher to overcome the initial investment

to obtain the same NPV of the project 1. The value of

contribution margin between the projects is estimated, by

applying the difference between NPV of


9/10

Figure 9 Make or buy analysis – DMLS Figure 10 Make or buy analysis – brazing

Project 2 and Project 1.

With the information described in the table 11, the

difference between unit revenues of projects are estimated

and presented in the table 12, for a production volume of

2000 parts

TTable 11 Data information of the projects

Table 12 Results for a production volume of 2000 parts

Figure 11 shows the evolution of the difference of

contribution margin and the difference the prices of sales

between the two projects for a wide range of annual

production volumes.

As expected, the project with higher investment,

the conformal cooling technology, requires a higher

contribution margin to obtain the same NPV as the project

with conventional technologies. However, the variable part

production costs using a mould with conformal

technologies are lower. This benefit is translated in a

decrease of the required margin per part to achieve the

same NPV. Regarding the part price, it is computed

considering the production costs and the required margin

to level the NVP. Therefore, the meaning of the negative

difference between the projects above 10,000 parts of

annual production volume is that for the same expected

value of the projects, the price of the part produced by

project 2 (conformal cooling) could be lower. Therefore, for

the same price for both parts, the value (NPV) of project 2

would be higher. This difference increases with the

increase of the production volume, with the capital

utilization of the investment and the benefit per unit

produced of using conformal cooling technologies.

Furthermore, as the parts produced by conformal cooling

have better results regarding the part technical

performance, and therefore higher “quality”, the price could

reflect this and the value of project 2 would be even higher.

Figure 11 Difference of contribution margin and price of

sales between project 2 and 1

5. Conclusions

This work was intended to apply the Life Cycle

Engineering perspective in order to compare three different

technological alternatives of mould production. LCE

allowed combining the economic, environmental and

technical performance to support sustainable decisions.

Δ CM 0.15 €

0.12 €

Results


10/10

For the economic performance, a Life Cycle Cost

methodology was developed and allowed to estimate all

the costs involved in the mould life cycle, regarding the

boundaries conditions. Also, this methodology allowed to

an estimative of costs in a long period perspective.

For the environmental performance, Life Cycle

Assessment methodology was developed and allowed to

estimate all the environmental impacts in the mould life

cycle, regarding the boundaries conditions. The

identification of the impact was performed by the ReCiPe

method, which allowed to classify and to normalize the

required resources into impact categories as also into

damage categories. The classification of impacts in

categories of damage enabled a more visible perspective

of affected areas of the environment by the resources

consumed. The indicator provided a better understanding

of the impact of each resource in the environment.

The PBM allowed the construction of the inventory

in order to estimate the costs and environmental impacts.

This model related the resources consumed with the part

description and operations requirements. All the operations

were modelled, allowing to identify the main responsible

operations on the contribution of production costs and

environmental impacts.

Considering this case study, the economic

performance varied depending on various parameters. The

PBM model allowed to evaluate the influence of these

parameters. For example, for lower production volumes the

mould produced by conventional machining was the most

economical, however, for high volume production was

more economical the alternative brazing. The dimensions

of the mould also influenced the choice of the most

economical alternative. For low dimensions the alternative

laser has lower economic impacts.

A decision-making based only in an economic

analysis is insufficient, since the alternative with lower

economic impact may represent poor technical

performance, as the case of the mould produced by

conventional machining. Even if the technical performance

is guaranteed equal, the economic analysis remains

insufficient, since for an economic alternative may have

major environmental impacts, such as the case of the

mould produced by vacuum brazing. The ternary diagram

allowed a comprehensive analysis of the combination of

the three performances.

Apart from LCE methodology allowing a detailed

study of the three performances, the methodology was

extended to another types of analyses. After comparing the

economic performance, environmental and technical,

investments appraisal analyses were performed. These

complementary analyses were based on the results

obtained by LCC methodology, in order to identify the

situations in which the industry should select a particular

technological alternative. The analysis of investments is an

additional analysis that complements the economic

study, however is not recorded any information on

the environmental impact or technical performance.

For this reason, the LCE methodology is a

comprehensive support tool in making decision, regarding

the economic, environmental and technical performance

as also allows the construction of several sensitivity

analyses.

References

[1] H. Oizumi, V. DeSapio, Q. Fan, W. Greene, H. Skykes,

K. Taylor, K. Tsuji, J. Webster and C. Yost, "Tools, Dies,

and Industrial Molds: Competitive Conditions in the

United States and Selected Foreign Markets," 2002.

[2] M. N. Baily, D. Farrell, E. Greenberg, J. D. Henrich, N.

Jinjo, M. Jolles and J. Remes, "Increasing Global

Competition and Labour Productivity: Lessons from the

US Automotive Industry," 2005.

[3] I. Ribeiro, P. Peças and E. Henriques, "A life cycle

framework to support materials selection for Ecodesign:

A case study on biodegradable polymers," Materials and

Design, vol. 51, pp. 300-308, 2013.

[4] T. Bom, "Comparação do Desempenho de Tecnologias

Alternativas de Fabrico de Moldes de Plásticos," Instituto

Superior Técnico, Lisbon, 2014.

[5] LoRe-LCA, "Indicators and weighting systems, includng

normalization of environmental profiles," 2011. [Online].

Available: http://www.sintef.no/projectweb/lore-lca/.

[6] v. a. PRé, "SimaPro Database Manual," 2013. [Online].

Available: ww.pre-sustainability.com.

Application of Life Cycle Engineering in Technology …...Application of Life Cycle Engineering in Technology Selection Raposo, A. 2/10 moulds may not be adequate to manufacturing

Documents