Grinding is considered as a rather environmental-unfriendly process, where the aspects involving the high demanding process energy input and required fluid application can lead to severe environmental impacts while achieving high product quality. However, the reduction of the cutting fluids raises the cutting temperature, leading to negative alterations of the ground subsurface. Such detrimental aspects are usually not factored into a life cycle inventory analysis. Therefore, this study introduces a new sustainability indicator based on the rolling contact fatigue life of the component, as determined by the grinding process. A method for calculating this indicator is presented, and a case study is illustrated. The subsurface damage thickness can be loosely correlated with fatigue life and introduced as a new indicator. The selected indicators were used as decision-making parameters to showcase the potential of the product life factor as an aggregate sustainability indicator.
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