ME 4171 - Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacture

Description

Inclusion of environmental considerations in engineering design; reduction of environmental impact by design; recycling; material selection; demanufacturing and remanufacturing; life-cycle considerations and trade-offs.

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Syllabus

Download the latest class syllabus in MS Word by clicking here.

Lecture Material

The following notes are all made in Microsoft Office PowerPoint format except where otherwise noted. Please note that any copying, distribution, and reproduction without the consent of the instructor (Dr. Bert Bras) at Georgia Tech is prohibited.

• Cover sheet (in MS Word format)
• What is this course about?
• Environmental impact - some motivating examples
• Product Life-Cycles
• An overview of environmental impact reduction approaches
• Basic business drivers and issues
• Global business issues: NSF/DoE EBM Study Overview
• Company specific examples and cases
• Environmental indicators and metrics
• Pollution Prevention
• Toxic Release Inventory
• Environmentally Conscious Process Planning
• Examples of Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulations
• Design for Environment
• Design for Recycling (Part 1).
• Design for Recycling (Part 2).
• Remanufacture.
• Legislation examples
• Introduction to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Life Cycle Assessment metrics
• Life Cycle Costing
• ISO 14000.
• Packaging.
• FTC and recycling.
• Sustainable development and renewable energy.

Homework and assignments

All are in pdf format at this time,which requires an Adobe Acrobat reader or equivalent. MS Word versions are available upon request.

• Homework 1: Internet search assignment
• Homework 1a: General search assignment
• Homework 1b: Design your own class assignment
• Homework 1c: Keyword search assigment
• Homework 2: Pollution Prevention assignments
• Homework 2a: Automotive repair shops case
• Homework 2b: Solvent recycling case
• Homework 2c: Aircraft fuel tank production case
• Homework 2d: Stereo-lithography rapid prototyping process
• Homework 2e: Door remanufacture process
• Homework 2f: Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) manufacture
• Homework 2g: Leather tanning process
• Homework 2h: TRI-Explorer and Scorecard
• Homework 2i: TRI-Explorer (2003)
• Homework 3: Design for Recycling and Reuse assignments
• Homework 3a: Automobile recycling case
• Homework 3b: Design for Recycling and Reuse group assignment
• Homework 3c: Design for Recycling
• Homework 3d: Design for Recycling - Individual homework
• Homework 3e: Design for Remanufacture and Reuse
• Recyclability assessment table
• Remanufacture assessment spreadsheet
• Remanufacture assessment manual
• Jeep fuel pump remanufacture assessment example
• Homework 4: Design for Environment
• Homework 4a: Life-Cycle Design Strategies Wheel
• Homework 4b:
• Homework 5: Life-Cycle Assessment assignment
• Homework 5a: LCA group assignment
• Homework 5b: LCA individual assignment

Reading Material

Some papers are in pdf format, which requires an Adobe Acrobat reader or equivalent, others are in MS Word format at this time. Please note that some may be subject to copyright laws. Unlawful distribution is prohibited.

• "Green Products by Design:  Choices for a Cleaner Environment", US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, OTA-E-541, US Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., October 1992.
• "Environmentally Benign Manufacturing", WTEC Panel Report, Gutowski, T.G., Murphy, C.F., Allen, D.T., Bauer, D.J., Bras, B., Sheng, P.S., Sutherland, J.W., Thurston, D.L., Wolff, E.E., 2001.
• "Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of September 18 2000 on End-Of Life Vehicles", Official Journal of the European Communities, 21.10.2000, L 269/34-42.
• "Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment", Official Journal of the European Communities, 13.2.2003, L 37/19-23.
• "Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment", Official Journal of the European Communities, 13.2.2003, L 37/24-38.
• "A Lexicon of Green Engineering Terms", Coulter, S., Bras, B.A., and Foley, C., 10th International Conference of Engineering Design (ICED 95), V. Hubka Ed., Praha, Czech Republic, Heurista, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 1033-1039, August 22-24, 1995.
• "Incorporating Environmental Issues in Product Realization," Bras, B., Industry and Environment, United Nations UNEP/IE, Vol. 20, No. 1-2 (double issue), pp. 7-13, 1997.
• "Designing for Material Separation: Lessons from Automotive Recycling", Coulter, S.L., Bras, B.A., Winslow, G., and Yester, S., Paper no. 96-DETC/DFM-1270, Proceedings 1996 ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers in Engineering Conference, Irvine, California, August 22-24, 1996.
• "Technologies for the Identification, Separation, and Recycling of Automotive Plastics", Hendrix, J. Massey, K.A., Whitham, E., Russell, M., and Bras, B.A., International Journal of Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacturing, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 37-50, 1997.
• "The Use of Activity-Based Costing, Uncertainty and Disassembly Action Charts in Demanufacture Cost Assessments", Emblemsvag, J. and Bras, B.A., Proceedings 1995 ASME Advances in Design Automation Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, DE-Vol. 82, pp. 285-292, September 17-20, 1995.
• "Reducing Environmental Impact Through Systematic Product Evolution", Coulter, S.L., and Bras, B.A.,  International Journal of Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacturing, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 1-10, 1997.
• "Characterizing the Remanufacturability of Engineering Systems", Amezquita, H.A., Hammond, R.C., Salazar, M., and Bras, B.A., Proceedings 1995 ASME Advances in Design Automation Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, DE-Vol. 82, pp. 271-278, September 17-20, 1995
• "Issues in the Automotive Parts Remanufacturing Industry: Discussion of Results from Surveys Performed among Remanufacturers", Hammond, R., Amezquita, T., and Bras, B.A., International Journal of Engineering Design and Automation - Special Issue on Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacturing, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 27-46, 1998
• "Design for Remanuacturing Metrics", Hammond, R., and Bras, B.A., Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Reuse, (S.D. Flapper and A.J. de Ron eds.), Eindhoven, The Netherlands, pp. 5-22, November 11-13, 1996.
• "Lean Remanufacture of an Automobile Clutch", Amezquita, T., and Bras, B.A., Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Reuse, (S.D. Flapper and A.J. de Ron eds.), Eindhoven, The Netherlands, pp. 35-52, November 11-13, 1996.
• "An Activity-Based Life-Cycle Assessment Method", Emblemsvag, J. and Bras, B.A., Paper no. 97DETC/DFM-4376, ASME Design for Manufacturing Symposium, Proceedings 1997 ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers in Engineering Conference, Sacramento, California, September 14-17, 1997.
•  "LCA Comparability and the Waste Index", Emblemsvag, J. and Bras, B.A., International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Vol.4, No. 5, pp. 282-290, 1999
• "An Introduction to Environmental Accounting as a Business Management Tool: Key Concepts and Terms", US Environmental Protection Agency, Report no. EPA 742-R-95-001, pp. 39, June 1995.
• "EcoIndicator 99 Manual for Designers - A damage oriented method for Life Cycle Impact Assessment", Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, The Hague, The Netherlands, Oct. 2002.

Other Class Material

• Online case study on automobile recycling.

Past Exams

All are in MS Word format.

• 2004 final exam
• 2003 final exam
• 2002 final exam
• 2001 final exam
• 2000 final exam
• 1999 final exam
• 1998 final exam
• 1997 final exam
• 1996 final exam
• 1995 exam

Past projects

• 1995 List of Projects (Summary)

1. Automation of Scrap Tire Processing into Perma-Mulch - Waste Tire Management
2. Use of Recycled Glass in Sheet Molding Compound Manufacture - Premix, Inc.
3. Evaluation of Chromium Plating Processes for Aircraft Components - SAIC
4. Automation of Disassembly Processes - AT&T, Motorola, Ford
5. Economic Assessment of an Automobile Door Remanufacturing Process - Chrysler
6. Instrument Panel Redesign - Chrysler
7. Sunvisor and/or Remote Door Mirror Redesign for Recyclability - Chrysler, American Plastic Council

• 1994 List of Projects (Summary)

1. Reduction of Automobile Tire Waste-Chrysler Corporation
2. Styrene Collection and Removal-Premix
3. Waste Water Recycling-Texas Instruments
4. Design of Environmentally Benign Packaging Material-General Motors
5. Design of a Modular Environmentally Benign Car
6. Design of Modular Environmentally Benign Housing
7. Compatibility of Plastics in (Automotive) Design-Chrysler
8. Automotive Solutions Competition-(GM, Ford, Chrysler)
9. Padnos Design Competition for Environmentally Conscious Design

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