A method to ecodesign structural parts in the transport sector based on product life cycle management

Abstract

Lightweight construction could be a pathway towards more sustainability. The production of high-end structural components poses a challenge to bring about the closed loop recycling of worn components and increase the use of recycled aluminum scraps. Designers will need to integrate the environmental dimension in the design of aluminum-alloyed parts over their entire lifecycle. Although many ecodesign methods and tools are currently available, there is a gap in their integration into the design process in industry, as well as in the daily practice of the designers. Moreover, existing ecodesign methods are not tailored to the lightweight context. This paper proposes a holistic approach to ecodesign geared to operate within a PLM (Product Life cycle Management) system. A PLM system is a set of tools used to create and manage the product information through its whole life cycle. Within the mechanical design area, a PLM system is composed of the traditional design tools such as Computer-aided design (CAD), Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), Computer-aided engineering (CAE), etc … and allows bidirectional informational flows between the embedded tools. The proposition aims to foster sustainable design solutions for high-end structural parts used in the transport sector, especially in the automotive and aeronautic industries. It consists on developing a PLM-based single-block ecodesign method in order to achieve: (1) a simplified environmental assessment of a reference product and its design alternatives by providing results in a comparative way; and (2) the stimulation of improvement ideas and a solutions-generation phase thanks to dedicated environmental guidelines. The expected result is an efficient iterative and continuous ecodesign tasks between the environmental assessment and improvement. The proposition is conceived to be handled by the design team and to exchange product information with their traditional design tools within a PLM platform.