Increasing the Environmental Sustainability of an Over-Injection Line for the Automotive Component Industry
| Autor: | Alexandre L. N. Vieira, Raul D.S.G. Campilho, Luís Pinto Ferreira, Francisco Silva |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Production line
bowden cables Process (engineering) Computer science Geography Planning and Development Automotive industry TJ807-830 Management Monitoring Policy and Law production rate TD194-195 Renewable energy sources Return on investment sustainable production Production (economics) GE1-350 Process engineering Environmental effects of industries and plants Renewable Energy Sustainability and the Environment business.industry automotive industry Environmentally friendly Environmental sciences micro-injection Work (electrical) thermoplastic injection molding Sustainability business |
| Zdroj: | Sustainability, Vol 13, Iss 12692, p 12692 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2071-1050 |
| Popis: | Thermoplastic injection is currently employed in different industrial fields. This process has significantly evolved over the years, and injection machine manufacturers are continuously forced to innovate, to improve the energetic efficiency, aiming to reduce costs, improve competitiveness, and promote environmental sustainability. This work focuses on the development of a novel, profitable, and environmentally friendly plastic over-injection equipment of small metallic parts for the automotive industry, to be applied in a bowden cable production line, to cover the zamak terminations with plastic, or produce terminations entirely made of plastic. The work is based on an over-sized existing solution. The operating parameters required for the work are quantified, and all machine parts are designed separately to achieve the required functionality. Known approaches are finally used to perform the cost analysis, calculate the return on investment (ROI), and energetic efficiency, to substantiate the replacement of the current solution. The new equipment was able to increase the energetic efficiency of the current assembly line while keeping the required injection rates. An efficient and sustainable solution was presented, with a ROI of 1.2 years over the current solution. The proposed design is also applicable to different automated production lines that require this technology. Nowadays, this concept can be extended to all fields of industry that employ injection molding in their processes, enabling to integrate new manufacturing systems, and increasing energetic efficiency while reducing production costs. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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