A Life Cycle Ecological Sensitivity Analysis Method for Eco-Design Decision Making of Machine Tool

Abstract

Reducing the ecological footprint of the machine tool is one of the great challenges in terms of the global sustainable development goals. Eco-design of the machine tool is now regarded as one of the effective methods to reduce the environmental pollution from the source. This paper proposes an ecological sensitivity analysis method enabling ranking of the alternative eco-design measures in a time efficient way regarding the life-cycle environmental impact to support eco-design decision making of machine tool. Based on the presented frameworks and procedures, the potential ecological improvement measures can be identified and the ecological improvement potentials of these measures with various options could be quantified. Realization of this method is analyzed by a case study of gear hobbing machine. The goal of this paper is expected to give a complementary support for decision-making on eco-design of the machine tool.