The industrial production must be driven forward by a leading idea, which aspires to prevent pollution and to reduce the carbon emissions. A greener future is motivating the technological progresses. The key word is sustainability protecting the environment of the future by low impact solutions. In manufacturing, this has been resulting in process optimization to guarantee the quality and safety standards of the parts exhibiting an as low as possible environmental impact. The introduction of new materials and their combination is one of the strategies that has been pursued. In this context, the joints between dissimilar parts are important affecting the weight, the mechanical properties and the production costs of the manufactured structures. In the proposed research, the primary joining categories (i.e. mechanical, thermal and chemical processes) have been analysed assessing their environmental consequences in the engineering of hybrid structures. Specifically, components manufactured by the combination of polymer matrix composites (PMC) and metals (lightweight alloys) are the analysed hybrid solutions. These result in a weight saving without being forced to reduce the performances or to increase the production costs of the parts. Joining solutions that can connect PMC and lightweight alloys have been, therefore, considered in the performed comparison. The energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the investigated processes, being equal the bearing strength for each of them, have shown a better environmental impact of the mechanical fastening performed by bolts. Currently, this is the only solution, which allows part disassembling. However, the recycling of hybrid components is a new requirement and new dismantling strategies can be developed. For this reason, the study has been extended taking the components down for whatever investigated joining solution. Hence, adhesive bonding and ultrasonic spot welding become environmentally-friendly as well.
Energy consumption and CO2 emissions of joining processes for manufacturing hybrid structures
Gagliardi F.;Palaia D.;Ambrogio G.
2019-01-01
Abstract
The industrial production must be driven forward by a leading idea, which aspires to prevent pollution and to reduce the carbon emissions. A greener future is motivating the technological progresses. The key word is sustainability protecting the environment of the future by low impact solutions. In manufacturing, this has been resulting in process optimization to guarantee the quality and safety standards of the parts exhibiting an as low as possible environmental impact. The introduction of new materials and their combination is one of the strategies that has been pursued. In this context, the joints between dissimilar parts are important affecting the weight, the mechanical properties and the production costs of the manufactured structures. In the proposed research, the primary joining categories (i.e. mechanical, thermal and chemical processes) have been analysed assessing their environmental consequences in the engineering of hybrid structures. Specifically, components manufactured by the combination of polymer matrix composites (PMC) and metals (lightweight alloys) are the analysed hybrid solutions. These result in a weight saving without being forced to reduce the performances or to increase the production costs of the parts. Joining solutions that can connect PMC and lightweight alloys have been, therefore, considered in the performed comparison. The energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the investigated processes, being equal the bearing strength for each of them, have shown a better environmental impact of the mechanical fastening performed by bolts. Currently, this is the only solution, which allows part disassembling. However, the recycling of hybrid components is a new requirement and new dismantling strategies can be developed. For this reason, the study has been extended taking the components down for whatever investigated joining solution. Hence, adhesive bonding and ultrasonic spot welding become environmentally-friendly as well.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
