Machine Sustainability Classification of Production Processes

The image is a flowchart describing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) process. On the left side, labeled "Process Inventory," features a box with "Fraunhofer IPT," outlining process-specific inputs such as gases (e.g., Ar, He), water, energy, and location, along with outputs like CuCl2, wastewater, and CO2 emissions. The center section titled "Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)" lists elements including energy, raw materials, and emissions (atmospheric, waterborne, and land-based), alongside solid waste. To the right, the "Impact Categories (LCIA)" identifies impacts like climate change (carbon footprint), human toxicity, land use, and water use. The fourth section, "Damage Categories," notes damages to human health, ecosystem quality, and natural resources. At the bottom, a horizontal arrow connects to "Databases over OpenLCA," and "Interpretation" outlines sustainability pillars: environment, economy, and social. The overall scheme is presented in a structured, organized layout with clear headings and bullet points.

Machine Sustainability Classification of Production Processes

Summary

The "Sustainability Assessment Tool" (SAT) is a web-based application that classifies production processes by sustainability grades determined through life cycle assessment (LCA) of a normalized product or process scenarios. It integrates with LCA tools like OpenLCA via API and allows for customizable databases. The approach uses a standard functional unit, like a specific size of a welding seam, to enable comparison across different processes. Validation was done using Fraunhofer ILT’s laser welding case, comparing blue and IR laser welding. To improve assessments, it's suggested that measurable quality properties of the product be used as functional units.


Topic Fields	Data Analytics Business Model
Published	2022
Involved Institutes	IPT ILT
Project Type	ICNAP Research/Transfer Project
Responsibles	Lars Leyendecker Gustavo Laydner Sören Hollatz

Description

In this project we developed a classification tool of production processes with regards to its sustainability grades. These grades can be obtained by performing a life cycle assessment analysis (LCA) of a normalized product (functional unit) manufactured by different processes or process chains (i.e. scenarios). A comparison of sustainability grades between the different scenarios allows a classification of processes/process chains regarding their sustainability.

This method of classifying production processes is deployed in a web application called “Sustainability Assessment Tool” (SAT), enabling ICNAP partners and Fraunhofer researchers to perform comparisons and classifications of processes using lifecycle assessment. The SAT works in cooperation with standard lifecycle assessment tools (as OpenLCA) through API connection. Databases can be configured in the platform according to the user’s needs. The validation of this method was performed with Fraunhofer ILT’s laser welding use case. Here, two different welding processes were assessed: laser welding blue and IR (using different wavelengths). The energy measurement system at Fraunhofer ILT considers cooling capacity and electrical energy input.

The method of using a normalized product (e.g., 10x0.5x0.5 mm³ of welding seam) as functional unit overcomes the disadvantage of not being able to compare sustainability grades among different processes. This means that the developed method can classify processes that produce exactly the functional unit. Comparing processes producing even slightly different products, is incoherent with this method, assuming different processes achieve different product qualities.

A suggestion for sustainability assessment of production processes is to set measurable quality properties of the product as functional unit instead of the product itself. Properties as tensile strength, impact strength and critical elongation, in the example of welded seam, can enable a comparison of slightly different products regarding their LCA-scores.

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