Dataset: Sustainability Analysing and Comparing Tool in Design for Manufacturing

Nowadays sustainable design is a mandatory requirement in the product development pro-cess. For this reason, design methodologies are addressed to establish a close relationship between environmental, social and economic impact indicators and product features from early design stages, especially in those features related to its manufacturing. In this thesis, the design for manufacturing and assembly — DFMA methodology shall be investigated to sheet metal devices, integrating functional and component relationships to minimize particu-lar sustainability indicators such as energy consumption, carbon footprint, number of parts, required amount of material, assembly time and manufacturing costs. You shall be open to discuss with suppliers their energy consumption and compare various manufacturing pro-cess possibilities based on their carbon footprint and other sustainability indicators. The aim of this thesis is to support the design engineer with a guideline of how to be able to develop not only cost efficient concepts but in the same time be able to reduce the carbon footprint and other sustainability indicators of their product.

Using the calculator

1. Open MATLAB and the CO2_Calculator.mlx file
2. Open the “LIVE EDITOR” tab and press “RUN”
   Now a series Pop-Up windows will appear, asking for input. Please note that all inputs must be numeric, and a decimal dot is used instead of a comma (example: 20.5 and not 20,5).
3. Enter which processes are included (1 for yes 0 for no)
4. Enter the sheet thickness [mm] (1-6 in whole numbers) as well as the workpiece weight [kg]
5. If laser cutting is included: Enter cutting length [mm]
6. If bending is included:
   a. Enter the number of bends (Max. 6)
   b. Enter the tensile strength [N/mm²] (dt. “Zugfestigkeit”)
   c. Enter the bending angle [mm] and bending length [mm] for each individual bend
7. If welding is included:
   a. Enter number of welds (Max 6)
   b. Enter the shielding gas type (1: Ar + 2% CO2; 2: Ar + 18% CO2; 3: C25; Ar + 25% CO2; 4: opens a new window for your own specifications) Note: if unknown choose 1 for the lowest CO2 Emissions
   c. Enter the welding length [mm], the number of passes as well as the distance between the welds [mm] for each individual weld. Note: if the distance between the welds is not known, enter 0 or an estimate
8. Enter if you want to save your results or not Note: please include “.xls” in the filename to save the file as Excel
   After everything is entered the results are presented in kg of emitted CO2 on the right, please scroll down.
   For the welding process emitted fumes and particles (shielding gas 1&2) are presented as well.