A Thermodynamic Characterization of Manufacturing Processes

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to characterize the material and energy transformations that take place in manufacturing processes. The measures used here are energy, and a related property "exergy". We summarize thermodynamic data for three aspects of the manufacturing processes: 1) the energy requirements for the materials used in manufacturing processes, 2) the energy requirements for manufacturing processes themselves, and 3) the efficiency of the material and energy transformations in manufacturing processes.