Topic 3 Green Design

Strategies for Green Design

Strategies for Green Design

Design for Manufacture• Followed during the design process,

Design for Manufacture (DfM) is an approach which has the aim of improving manufacturing productivity

• A dominating constraint on a design brief is the cost of the design

• Design for manufacture or 'Manufacturability' is concerned with the cost and difficulty of making the product

• Practice the KIS principle (Keep it Simple)

Design for ManufactureDesign for Manufacture can be conveniently split into:

• Design for materials• Design for process• Design for assembly

• Reduce the cost of the designs - as they are designed • DfM helps to analyze and compare the costs of different

materials – Design for Materials, and manufacturing methods – Design for Process, in the design phase.

• By simplifying the assembly and manufacture of the designs - which leads to significant cost savings - with Design for Assembly (DfA). DFA will help you estimate the difficulty of assembly, eliminate unnecessary parts and assembly tooling, and design products that are less costly to manufacture.

Design for Manufacture• Design for Manufacture is a well-established approach which involves - • Diagnosis

Determination of the manufacturability of the present product and comparison with similar products on the market

• Setting objectives Set in terms of production costs, quality, flexibility, risk, lead-time, efficiency, environment

• Function definition Involves defining the main functions of the product and their interactions

• Clarifying the evaluation parameters and design ideas This is done for each of the main product functions

• Conceptual design This process is followed top-down in the sequence: corporate, family, structural and component levels

• Evaluation and selection Assess the manufacturability of the proposed concepts in terms of the DFM objectives. Select the best fit concept

• Translation to design Communicate the chosen concept to the development team, which then carries out the detailed design in parallel to marketing and production development

Strategies that designers could employ for DfM

• Minimizing the number of components• Using standard components• Designing components that are

multifunctional or for multi-use• Designing parts for ease of fabrication• Minimize handling• Using standard sub-assemblies• Using ‘off the shelf’ components

Case Study Example - Snowbone• The Snowbone is an ingenious add-on attachment for a

snowboard to provide it with BMX bike-style handles, making it simple for beginners to keep their balance and giving experienced snowboarders the chance to show off aerial tricks

Use the link to read more about this product

Step 3Design for Manufacture & AssemblyFollowing receipt of the quotations, it was clear which components had the highest manufacturing costs. These were selected as priorities for formal design review. Some examples of the improvements realised are shown in the following table:

Optimization of Resource Utilization

• Reuse• Repair• Reconditioning• Recycling

Optimization of Resource Utilization

• Contribute to the optimization of resource utilization through reuse, repair, recycling and reconditioning

• Reduce the amount of waste• Improve durability, extended life cycle e.g.

IBM• Reduce packaging e.g. food

• Reuse• Wash and reuse, e.g. milk bottles, wine

bottles• Refurbishment, e.g. sofas• Alternatives to single use items e.g. nappies

Optimization of Resource Utilization

• Repair• Replacing broken/damaged components at a

reasonable cost e.g. washing machine, car• Reconditioning

• Replacing outdated components e.g. computers

• Remanufactured e.g. tyres• Recycling

• Recycling is the processing of waste manufactured products to provide the raw material to make new ones e.g. drinks cans

Optimization of Resource Utilization

• A key difference between the industrial economy and the service economy is that the first gives value to products that exist materially and are exchanged, whereas value in the service economy is more closely attributed to the performance and real use of products integrated into a system. In our classical, industrial economy, the value of products is essentially identified with the costs of producing them, whereas the notion of value in the service economy is shifted toward the evaluation of costs incurred to provide results in use.

• The first approach considers the value of a personal computer with a printer. The second, on the other hand, evaluates the actual performance of the, system, taking into consideration not only its cost of production but also all sorts of costs associated with successful use (such as the cost of learning to use it and the cost of repair and maintenance) as well as the quality of the result. In the service economy, what is purchased is the functioning of a tool; people buy "system functioning," or performance, not products.The Utilization-Focused Service Economy: Resource Efficiency and Product-Life ExtensionWALTER R. STAHEL

Examples• Strategies of reuse, repair and

recycling can be applied to the design of products, including packaging

Disposable Camera• Recent studies have show that, despite the recycling claims on the boxes, less

than half of disposable cameras are ever actually recycled. Enough cameras have been tossed to circle the planet, stacked end-to-end. Local film developers often have little or no incentive to return the camera bodies to the manufacturers, and not all parts of the cameras are recyclable. Kodak has started to minimally reimburse developers for the costs of sorting, storing and shipping, but processors are still faced with a bewildering variety of types, brands, and procedures for dealing with them.

• Inexpensive fully-automatic 35mm cameras can be purchased for about $20 if you look carefully. These cameras will give better results and cost less to use than the disposables. If you must use a disposable camera, be sure to take it to a developer that explicitly promises to recycle the remains.

Vacuum Cleaner• Should you fix your old vacuum? That depends on its age and

condition, what's broken, and the repair cost. In general, repair a vacuum cleaner that’s under warranty, and replace it if the repair would equal more than half the cost of a comparable new model. If you are satisfied with the machine’s performance, consider repair for uprights that are up to seven years old and canisters up to eight years old, especially if the repair isn't expensive

• Electronic equipment contains toxic materials: • Printed circuit boards in computers, music players, and other devices

contain toxic metals such as chromium, nickel, and zinc • Batteries may contain nickel and cadmium • Relays, switches, and liquid crystal displays (LCDs) may contain

mercury• Plastics used in many electronics also contain flame retardants that are

toxic and persist in the environment

Car Tyres• Retreading is the name of the process which

extends the life of a tyre by adding new material• Manufacturing a retread tyre for an

average car takes 4.5 gallons less oil than the equivalent new tyre, and for commercial vehicle tyres the saving is estimated to be about 15 gallons per tyre

• Reuse: Some tyres are perfectly suitable for further use on other vehicles. Tyre Safety Regulations apply to the sale of part-worns

• Recycling: By shredding the tyres the rubber that they are made from can be used to make floor surfaces, such as for children’s playgrounds or carpet underlay

• Recovering: Energy can be difficult because of the gases that are released from the tyres• Tyres can be used as a fuel for some

processes, such as in cement plants. This recovers the energy that is inherent in the tyre and reduces the energy cost of the production of cement

Separation Prior to Recycling• Many products are made up of several

different materials• These materials have to be separated to

enable recycling• Examine once again the Kodak disposable camera• Car manufactures are under strict legislation to

recovery old cars, the many components used in the manufacture of a car, need to be separated before recycling can take place

• Reasons for separation• Different materials are recycled by different

methods e.g. plastics, glass, metal, paper• Toxic materials need to be removed safely e.g.

batteries• Valuable metals extracted for reuse e.g. silver

used in photo-sensitive emulsion

Economics of Recycling Materials

• Saving money: Companies have realised that making reductions in products’ extraction, manufacture, and distribution could make direct cost savings. With take back laws such as WEEE and End of Vehicle Life, companies will also save money by designing their products so they are easy to disassemble, repair, reuse and recycle• Example: Redesigning a product so it uses less plastic will directly

reduce the amount of plastic the company has to buy. Using energy efficient and less wasteful process can directly reduce manufacturing costs for a company

• New ‘green consumer’ markets: Eco-design can lead to better quality, innovative new products. Some companies saw the potential commercial advantage that could be gained by developing ‘greener’ products• Example: many consumers will check the environmental profile of

the company and look for awards and eco-labels• Competition: If companies do not try to keep up with and

predict future legislation they can fall behind with their environmental knowledge and design work, and subsequently suffer financially

Design for Disassembly• Designing products in order to minimise their impact

on the environment is becoming increasingly important. Leading companies have realised the importance of Design for Disassembly (DfD)

• The principle of DfD is to design products for their full design life, but make them easy to disassemble at the end of their life for component reuse and recycling.

• Unplanned lengthy disassembly is uneconomical, environmentally damaging and does not enable the full value of the parts to be achieved through recycling

• Examine the products below

Design for Disassembly - Car

• The average lifespan of a car is 13.5 years and in 2000, just over 2 million cars and vans reached the end of their useful lives, either because of old age or due to accident

• The reuse of parts and the reclamation of materials from motor vehicles is not a new industry. Metal parts in particular have for a long time had a value, either in terms of reuse or recycling. Nowadays there are many parts that can be recycled, from the oil and its filter to plastic bumpers

Smart CarThe Smartville Energy Centre is an excellent example of company which has carried out a “life-cycle analysis”. It hasevaluated the environmental impact of its products from “thecradle to the grave” (from raw materials to final disposal).Watch the video and make notes on how the manufacturer ofthe Smart Car employs a proactive environmental approach.Use the following headings to make notes: • Materials for construction – car • Materials for construction – energy centre • Clean technologies: Water & waste  • Clean technologies: Pollution• Energy saving & heat

Volkswagon Beetle

Design for Disassembly – TV• When you compare a set from the early 1980s

with the current generation of models produced since 2000, you will notice some startling design differences

• The newer models feature much fewer parts and the types of plastics has also been dramatically reduced

• The end result is that today’s Panasonic TVs are much easier to disassemble and recycle than their predecessor models from the early 1980s

Facilitating Recycling• Designing for disassembly is one aspect of

designing for materials and will facilitate recycling of products on disposal

• There are a number of principles to facilitate disassembly for example:• Designing for ease of disassembly, to enable the removal

of parts without damage• Designing for ease of purifying, to ensure that the purifying

process does not damage the environment• Designing for ease of testing and classifying, to make it

clear as to the condition of parts which can be reused and to enable easy classification of parts through proper markings

• Designing for ease of reconditioning, this supports the reprocessing of parts by providing additional material as well as gripping and adjusting features

• Designing for ease of re-assembly, to provide easy assembly for reconditioned and new parts