Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting

Abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting is a manufacturing technique, which uses a high-speed waterjet as the transport medium for abrasive particles to erode and cut through metal workpieces. The use of abrasives has significant environmental impacts and leads to the high operating costs of AWJ cutting. Th...

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Autores principales:	Giovanni Guglielmi, Benjamin Mitchell, Cuihong Song, Brad L. Kinsey, Weiwei Mo
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	life cycle assessment life cycle cost assessment metal cutting water droplet machining abrasive waterjet cutting sensitivity analysis Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/cd446584896d44dd84a3d34190351228
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:cd446584896d44dd84a3d341903512282021-11-11T19:49:56ZLife Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting10.3390/su1321122752071-1050https://doaj.org/article/cd446584896d44dd84a3d341903512282021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12275https://doaj.org/toc/2071-1050Abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting is a manufacturing technique, which uses a high-speed waterjet as the transport medium for abrasive particles to erode and cut through metal workpieces. The use of abrasives has significant environmental impacts and leads to the high operating costs of AWJ cutting. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether other metal cutting approaches can perform the same tasks with reduced environmental and economic impacts. One such manufacturing innovation is water droplet machining (WDM). In this process, the waterjet, which is immersed in a sub-atmospheric pressure environment, is discretized into a train of high velocity water droplets, which are able to erode and cut through the metal workpiece without abrasives. However, the cutting velocity of WDM is two orders of magnitude slower than AWJ. In this paper, a comparative life cycle and life cycle cost assessments were performed to determine which waterjet cutting technology is more beneficial to the environment and cost-efficient, considering their impacts from cradle to grave. The results show lower environmental and economic impacts for AWJ compared to WDM due to the AWJ’s ability to cut more metal over the service life than the WDM. Further sensitivity analyses give insight into how the change in abrasive rate is the most sensitive input for the AWJ, whereas the machine lifetime and electricity usage are the most sensitive inputs for the WDM. These results provide a valuable comparison between these alternative waterjet cutting technologies.Giovanni GuglielmiBenjamin MitchellCuihong SongBrad L. KinseyWeiwei MoMDPI AGarticlelife cycle assessmentlife cycle cost assessmentmetal cuttingwater droplet machiningabrasive waterjet cuttingsensitivity analysisEnvironmental effects of industries and plantsTD194-195Renewable energy sourcesTJ807-830Environmental sciencesGE1-350ENSustainability, Vol 13, Iss 12275, p 12275 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	life cycle assessment life cycle cost assessment metal cutting water droplet machining abrasive waterjet cutting sensitivity analysis Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350
spellingShingle	life cycle assessment life cycle cost assessment metal cutting water droplet machining abrasive waterjet cutting sensitivity analysis Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Giovanni Guglielmi Benjamin Mitchell Cuihong Song Brad L. Kinsey Weiwei Mo Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting
description	Abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting is a manufacturing technique, which uses a high-speed waterjet as the transport medium for abrasive particles to erode and cut through metal workpieces. The use of abrasives has significant environmental impacts and leads to the high operating costs of AWJ cutting. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether other metal cutting approaches can perform the same tasks with reduced environmental and economic impacts. One such manufacturing innovation is water droplet machining (WDM). In this process, the waterjet, which is immersed in a sub-atmospheric pressure environment, is discretized into a train of high velocity water droplets, which are able to erode and cut through the metal workpiece without abrasives. However, the cutting velocity of WDM is two orders of magnitude slower than AWJ. In this paper, a comparative life cycle and life cycle cost assessments were performed to determine which waterjet cutting technology is more beneficial to the environment and cost-efficient, considering their impacts from cradle to grave. The results show lower environmental and economic impacts for AWJ compared to WDM due to the AWJ’s ability to cut more metal over the service life than the WDM. Further sensitivity analyses give insight into how the change in abrasive rate is the most sensitive input for the AWJ, whereas the machine lifetime and electricity usage are the most sensitive inputs for the WDM. These results provide a valuable comparison between these alternative waterjet cutting technologies.
format	article
author	Giovanni Guglielmi Benjamin Mitchell Cuihong Song Brad L. Kinsey Weiwei Mo
author_facet	Giovanni Guglielmi Benjamin Mitchell Cuihong Song Brad L. Kinsey Weiwei Mo
author_sort	Giovanni Guglielmi
title	Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting
title_short	Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting
title_full	Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting
title_fullStr	Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting
title_full_unstemmed	Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting
title_sort	life cycle environmental and economic comparison of water droplet machining and traditional abrasive waterjet cutting
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/cd446584896d44dd84a3d34190351228
work_keys_str_mv	AT giovanniguglielmi lifecycleenvironmentalandeconomiccomparisonofwaterdropletmachiningandtraditionalabrasivewaterjetcutting AT benjaminmitchell lifecycleenvironmentalandeconomiccomparisonofwaterdropletmachiningandtraditionalabrasivewaterjetcutting AT cuihongsong lifecycleenvironmentalandeconomiccomparisonofwaterdropletmachiningandtraditionalabrasivewaterjetcutting AT bradlkinsey lifecycleenvironmentalandeconomiccomparisonofwaterdropletmachiningandtraditionalabrasivewaterjetcutting AT weiweimo lifecycleenvironmentalandeconomiccomparisonofwaterdropletmachiningandtraditionalabrasivewaterjetcutting
_version_	1718431437443563520

Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Comparison of Water Droplet Machining and Traditional Abrasive Waterjet Cutting

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