Evaluating Environmental Impacts of Sand Cast Products Using Life Cycle Assessment
Year: 2011
Editor: Chakrabarti, A.
Author: Joshi,Durgesh; Modi,Yashwant; Ravi.B
Section: Eco-Design, Sustainable Manufacturing, Design for Sustainbility
Page(s): 551-558
Abstract
Global casting production is estimated to be over 100mT by the end of 2010. Sand casting is the most widely used process and accounts for 90% of all castings produced of which 95% belong to three materials — cast iron, aluminium and steel [1]. Sand casting is known to be resource intensive and environmental impacting manufacturing process.The total environmental impact of sand cast products depends on part design, material, choice of melting furnace, percentage of secondary (recycled) material, and usage of cast product. Process parameters as pouring temperature, core making, mould making, and casting yield also influence the environmental impact. Above all energy model causes variations in these environmental impacts for various regions. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is performed considering above employing EDIP (Environmental Design of Industrial Products) methodology. System boundary includes raw material mining and extraction, manufacturing, transportation,use, and end of life. LCA of sand cast product can thus be useful in quantitative evaluation of the total environmental impact resulting from a cast product in lieu of traditional way of comparing the emission during manufacturing alone
Keywords: Life cycle assessment (LCA), Environmental impact analysis, Metal casting