Life Cycle Assessment of Micro Manufacturing Process Chains - Application to the Microfactory Concept

A. De Grave, S.I. Olsen, H.N. Hansen
a Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

Abstract

Historically LCA has mainly been applied to products; however, it can be very useful in assisting the whole product development by identifying more sustainable options in process selection, design and optimisation. It has been shown that it is relevant to apply LCA to micro components and more specifically to the research area of micro manufacturing where both processes and products are stated to be environmentally friendlier because of their small size. It is assumed that environmental impacts can be reduced by reducing the size of the factory using the concept of microfactories. In this paper, first the typology of data used for performing an LCA is investigated in the context of micro technology, then an example of a micro injection moulding insert is given. The concept of microfactories is then addressed with and environmental impact paradigm.