Decision Making with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for Material Selection in Screw Manufacturing for Minimizing Environmental Impacts

Abstract

This study is an approach to investigate the environmental impact of screw manufacturing and to choose suitable material for selected screw-making processes for the best performance with minimum environmental impact. The parameters involved were types of material and screw-making process using the environmental data available in Asia region. The two different manufacturing approaches being evaluated were machining and forging. The types of material considered were low carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium alloy and aluminium alloy. As for machining process, the materials being considered in screw manufacturing were low carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium alloy, aluminium alloy, magnesium alloy and cast iron. The information of environmental impact are generated by SolidWorks. Sustainability tool was used in the formation of pair-wise comparison matrices for Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Then, the ranking of global priorities had enabled the determination of appropriate material to be used for those selected screw manufacturing process. As a result, aluminium alloy was found to give minimum environmental impact for forging process whereas cast iron was found to excel in machining process. At the same time, titanium alloy was not suggested to be used in either process.