Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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  • Publication
    Environmental energy efficiency of single wire and tandem gas metal arc welding
    ( 2017)
    Sproesser, G.
    ;
    Chang, Y.-J.
    ;
    Pittner, A.
    ;
    Finkbeiner, M.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    This paper investigates gas metal arc welding (GMAW) with respect to energy consumption and its associated environmental impacts. Different material transfer modes and power levels for single wire GMAW (SGMAW) and tandem GMAW (TGMAW) are evaluated by means of the indicator electrical deposition efficiency. Furthermore, the wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is measured in order to describe the total energy consumption from the electricity grid. The results show that the energy efficiency is highly affected by the respective process and can be significantly enhanced by a TGMAW process. The wall-plug efficiency of the equipment shows no significant dependency on the power range or the material transfer mode. Moreover, the method of life cycle assessment (LCA) is adopted in order to investigate the influences of energy efficient welding on the environmental impacts. In the comparative LCA study, the demand of electrical energy is reduced up to 24%. In consequence, the indicator values for global warming potential (100), acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and photochemical ozone creation potential are reduced up to 11%.
  • Publication
    Assessing carbon dioxide emission reduction potentials of improved manufacturing processes using multiregional input output frameworks
    ( 2017)
    Ward, H.
    ;
    Burger, M.
    ;
    Chang, Y.-J.
    ;
    Fürstmann, P.
    ;
    Neugebauer, S.
    ;
    Radebach, A.
    ;
    Sproesser, G.
    ;
    Pittner, A.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    ;
    Uhlmann, E.
    ;
    Steckel, J.C.
    Evaluating innovative process technologies has become highly important within the last decades. As standard tools different Life Cycle Assessment methods have been established, which are continuously improved. While those are designed for evaluating single processes they run into difficulties when it comes to assessing environmental impacts of process innovations at macroeconomic level. In this paper we develop a multi-step evaluation framework building on multi regional input-output data that allows estimating macroeconomic impacts of new process technologies, considering the network characteristics of the global economy. Our procedure is as follows: i) we measure differences in material usage of process alternatives, ii) we identify where the standard processes are located within economic networks and virtually replace those by innovative process technologies, iii) we account for changes within economic systems and evaluate impacts on emissions. Within this paper we exemplarily apply the methodology to two recently developed innovative technologies: longitudinal large diameter steel pipe welding and turning of high-temperature resistant materials. While we find the macroeconomic impacts of very specific process innovations to be small, its conclusions can significantly differ from traditional process based approaches. Furthermore, information gained from the methodology provides relevant additional insights for decision makers extending the picture gained from traditional process life cycle assessment.
  • Publication
    Energy efficiency and environmental impacts of high power gas metal arc welding
    ( 2017)
    Sproesser, G.
    ;
    Chang, Y.-J.
    ;
    Pittner, A.
    ;
    Finkbeiner, M.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    Single-wire gas metal arc welding (SGMAW) and high power tandem GMAW (TGMAW) are evaluated with respect to energy efficiency. The key performance indicator electrical deposition efficiency is applied to reflect the energy efficiency of GMAW in different material transfer modes. Additionally, the wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is determined in order to identify the overall energy consumption. The results show that energy efficiency can be increased by 24% and welding time is reduced over 50% by application of the tandem processes. A comparative life cycle assessment of a 30-mm-thick weld is conducted to investigate the influences of the energy efficiency on the environmental impacts. The environmental impacts on the categories global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and photochemical ozone creation potential can be reduced up to 11% using an energy-efficient TGMAW process.
  • Publication
    Sustainable Welding Process Selection Based on Weight Space Partitions
    ( 2016)
    Sproesser, G.
    ;
    Schenker, S.
    ;
    Pittner, A.
    ;
    Borndörfer, R.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    ;
    Chang, Y.-J.
    ;
    Finkbeiner, M.
    Selecting a welding process for a given application is crucial with respect to the sustainability of part manufacturing. Unfortunately, since welding processes are evaluated by a number of criteria, preferences for one or the other process can be contradictory. However, the prevalent procedure of weight assignment for each criterion is subjective and does not provide information about the entire solution space. From the perspective of a decision maker it is important to be able to assess the entire set of possible weightings and answer the question which welding process is optimal for which set of weights. This issue is investigated by means of a weight space partitioning approach. Two welding processes are considered with respect to three criteria that reflect their economic and environmental performance. In order to find the most sustainable welding process the underlying weight space partition is evaluated.
  • Publication
    Life Cycle Assessment of welding technologies for thick metal plate welds
    ( 2015)
    Sproesser, G.
    ;
    Chang, Y.-J.
    ;
    Pittner, A.
    ;
    Finkbeiner, M.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is applied in evaluating environmental impacts of state-of-the-art welding technologies. Manual Metal Arc Welding (MMAW), Laser Arc-Hybrid Welding (LAHW) and two Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) variants are used to join a plate of 20 mm thick structural steel. The LCA results indicate that for 1 m weld seam, MMAW causes the highest environmental impacts in global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), acidification potential (AP), and photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) among the selected processes, and the LAHW variant performances the least. Filler material and electricity consumptions generally dominate the impacts and reach shares of up to 80% and 61% in the respective impact categories. However, electrode coating consumption in MMAW remarkably contributes impacts on AP and EP, for instance 52% of AP and 76% of EP. Strategies for improvement of the applied welding technologies are discussed.
  • Publication
    Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment of Welding Technologies
    ( 2015)
    Chang, Y.-J.
    ;
    Sproesser, G.
    ;
    Neugebauer, S.
    ;
    Wolf, K.
    ;
    Scheumann, R.
    ;
    Pittner, A.
    ;
    Rethmeier, M.
    ;
    Finkbeiner, M.
    Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) are applied in evaluating possible social and environmental impacts of the state-of-art welding technologies, such as Manual Metal Arc Welding (MMAW), Manual Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), Automatic GMAW and Automatic Laser-Arc Hybrid Welding (LAHW). The LCA results indicate that for 1 meter weld seam, MMAW consumes the largest amount of resources (like filler material and coating on electrodes) and energy, which contributes to comparatively higher environmental impacts in global warming potential, acidification, photochemical ozone creation potential and eutrophication than other chosen processes. With regard to social aspects, the health issues and fair salary are under survey to compare the relative potential risk on human health caused by fumes in different welding technologies, and to indicate the sufficiency of current salary of welders in Germany. The results reflect that the wage status of welders is still fair and sufficient. The manual processes bring much higher potential risk of welders' health than the automatic processes, especially MMAW.