An Emergy-Based Sustainability Method for Mechanical Production Process—A Case Study

Abstract

To promote the sustainability of mechanical production process, this study proposes an emergy-based sustainability evaluation method to evaluate the resource utilization and environmental pollution of the mechanical production process. Firstly, this study constructs the sustainability evaluation index system of the mechanical production process from the perspectives of economy and environment. Secondly, an emergy analysis method-based sustainable evaluation of the mechanical production process is constructed. Finally, taking the gear manufacturing process as an example, the method is tested. The results show that this method can effectively quantify and identify the sustainability of the gear manufacturing process and provide effective feedback to improve the process. The resulting improvements can aid in reconsidering the economic and environmental factors, improving the production efficiency and the sustainability of the production process, and reducing the difficulty of operating the lathe in the production process. This study provides method support for the sustainability evaluation of mechanical production process and decision support for its improvement.