Investigation on quantitative assessment of energy consumption and the associated sustainability performance of CNC milling machines
The increasing trend of energy prices increment and more and tighter environmental legislation, has led to manufacturing industry and enterprises paying more attention to investigation of more prominent energy/resource efficient production methods, quantitative analysis on energy consumption in manufacturing systems and corresponding timely decision makings. This is further evidenced and supported by the development of latest ISO standards such as ISO 14000, ISO 20140, ISO/TC 39/SC 2, N1760 and ISO 14955 for this cause. Therefore, developing a comprehensive methodological approach for quantitative analysis of energy consumptions and the associated sustainability aspects of CNC machines and operations is the key driver for this research, albeit incorporating its implementation and application perspectives on shopfloor machining operations is the predominant goal as well. The research presented consists of two inter-related parts. The first part discusses the development of the systematic integrated ERWC approach used for the modelling and simulation tenacities in CNC machines and machining operations by taking account of energy consumption (E), resource utilization (R) and waste resulted in production (W), and collectively the resultant carbon footprint (C). The ERWC modelling and analysis is explored in details with support of the MATLAB-based simulations developed and relevant case carried out. The second part of the research is focused on evaluation of the methodological approach by design of a special testing workpiece and the well-designed CNC machining experiments. The experiments are carried out on the Bridgeport 3-axis CNC milling machine, so the maximum output power of the machine can be determined using the designed testing workpiece and appropriate testing procedures. In the experiments, the milling machine is opted with the clamped power logger for power data-acquisition. The results are used to further validate the model, approach and simulations developed. The contributions to knowledge are largely raised from developing the integrated ERWC modelling approach, innovative design of the testing workpiece, and their implementation perspectives on the 3-axis CNC milling machine, as supported with original research thoughts and exploration.
Energy efficiency, CNC milling machine, Sustainable manufacturing, ERWC modelling, Decision making
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Brunel University School of Engineering and Design PhD Theses