Sustainable product design using CAD: a case study in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation

Sustainability is gaining importance in contemporary manufacturing organisations. Modern design engineers need approaches for creating environmentally friendly products. In this context, this paper reports a case study carried out in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation. A component of the rotary switch has been modelled using computer-aided design. Then, the sustainability analysis has been carried out for determining the environmental impact. The environmental impact has been measured in terms of carbon footprint, energy consumption and air/water impacts. The handle design has been modified to minimise the environmental impact. The results of this case study indicate that appropriate modifications in design could lead to the development of sustainable design with minimal environmental impact.     

Reverse logistics network design: a conceptual framework for decision making

Reverse logistics play a significantly increased role in supply chains. Producers are incorporating reverse logistics into their supply chain design because of governmental legislation, economic benefits from product recovery, and customers' demands for better environmental practices. Motivated producers face two main challenges in reverse logistics network design: (1) how do you build product recovery activities into traditional forward logistics networks? and (2) how do you manage the impact of uncertainty in the reverse logistics supply chain? Moreover, producers need to consider many tradeoffs leading to efficient network design. Published case studies have discussed these tradeoffs, and we describe a framework to evaluate these tradeoff considerations. We then apply the framework to three new case studies: medical device refurbishing, municipal e‐waste recycling, and carpet fibre recycling.     

Selection of green product design scheme based on multi-attribute decision-making method

The function, cost and environmental performance are the primary decision-making factors for scheme selection in green design. For the comprehensive and accurate decision-making in selecting green product design scheme, a quantitative analysis method of multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) is presented. With analysing the multi-attribute of scheme selection, the MADM model is established, which takes environmental impact of materials, disassembly performance, recycling performance, energy efficiency, noise, pollutants to environmental and functional values. Fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution method is applied to solve this model for the feasible solutions. Finally, a case study is given to validate the application of this methodology as a useful design guideline for scheme selection in green design.     

Towards integrating production and consumption to reduce consumer food waste in developed countries

Abstract

Literature analysing reasons for Consumer Food Waste (CFW) revealed that it cannot be reduced to consumer behaviour alone. In fact, CFW should not be conceptualised as the problem but as a symptom of a food system that oversupplies and encourages consumerism. This research focuses on preventing CFW in the United Kingdom (UK), as a representative of a developed country, by improving the traditional food provisioning system to better integrate production and consumption. To achieve this, five stages are identified to design a sustainable product service system (PSS) capable of supporting consumers to better manage their food operations: (1) strategic analysis of current food provisioning system, (2) exploring system level innovations leading to minimisation of CFW, (3) refinement and selection of PSS, (4) designing the most promising PSS from an environmental, economic and social perspective, and (5) evaluating designed PSS. This paper considers the first of these stages, reviews reasons for and existing solutions to CFW, and provides a strategic analysis of the current food provisioning system to identify characteristics that could be exploited within a new PSS. Initial investigations reveal applicability of PSS concept to the food provisioning system and potential for reduction of CFW if core causes are addressed.     

Assessing sustainability in nature-inspired design

In the field of sustainable product development, a new perspective for approaching sustainability has been advocated, challenging designers and engineers to aim beyond ‘reducing unsustainability’. Several design strategies – including Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle – have been suggested for developing truly sustainable, or ‘beneficial’, products. But do these strategies help in developing such products, and how to assess their ‘sustainability’? Based on a review of the objectives in nature-inspired design, we argue that assessing environmental sustainability is not straightforward. Whereas both Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle build on the perspective of ‘achieving sustainability’, current life-cycle assessment-based tools are geared towards reducing current impacts. As a consequence, existing tools are insufficiently equipped for the purpose of the assessment: they do not cover some of the main results that nature-inspired design is set out to accomplish. To be able to include these results, we propose two new constituents to current life-cycle-based product assessment: assessing against conditions of sustainability and assessing ‘achievement’, the extent to which these conditions of sustainability have been achieved. Furthermore, the product context needs to be included for assessing beneficial impacts. This article discusses how these constituents can contribute to an assessment tool that enables designers and engineers to assess the development of environmentally sustainable solutions.     

全球产品策略与其他化学品风险评估

为推动化学品风险评估在我国的开展,对全球产品策略(GPS)进行研究。通过对GPS实施流程的分析,确定实施GPS的核心是开展化学品的风险评估(简称GPS风险评估)。将GPS风险评估与欧盟《化学品注册、评估、授权和限制》(REACH)法规要求的化学品安全评估(简称REACH CSA)和我国新化学物质登记要求的新物质风险评估进行对比,从评估物质的要求、效应评估的范围和方法、暴露评估的范围和方法以及风险表征的方法 4个方面分析其共同点和差异。确定GPS风险评估是简化版的REACH CSA,新物质风险评估相当于REACH CSA中的环境风险评估部分。最后认为,开展化学品全面风险评估是国际化学品管理发展的趋势。针对实际情况,提出宜采取简化评估和优先评估的方法,在我国逐步开展化学品全面风险评估。     

多元可燃性混合气体爆炸中间产物发射光谱特性实验研究

从矿井火区实际出发,选用类似于煤矿开采现场产生的多元可燃性气体:CH4,C2H6 ,C2H4,CO,H2 ,利用瞬态光谱测量系统探究了爆炸引发阶段中间产物的光谱特征,分析了组分配比、组分浓度和甲烷浓度对压力特性和中间产物光谱的影响。研究结果表明:在多组分气体加入量较小（未形成体系贫氧状态）时,3种自由基发射光谱峰值出现时间随着甲烷浓度的增大先缩短后延长;在多组分气体加入量较大（形成体系贫氧状态）时,自由基发射光谱峰值出现时间随着甲烷浓度的增大不断延长;当其以任意比例混合后,微观反应过程中关键自由基的出现顺序为:OH自由基先于O自由基, O自由基先于H自由基出现。     

鄱阳湖区域旅游整体形象策划研究

在鄱阳湖区域内,以鄱阳湖为龙头,与周边湖口、星子、德安、永修、新建、南昌、进贤、余干、波阳、都昌诸县和九江市庐山区以及与鄱阳湖相近相通的南昌市区组成一个集名山、名江、名湖、名城为一体的独具特色的旅游圈。 为把鄱阳湖区域发展成为集旅游、度假、休闲、娱乐为一体的国内外著名的旅游目的地,湖区各级旅游组织和旅游目的地,应遵循整体性、地域性、市场性、持续性、大众参与性、可操作性原则,充分发挥鄱阳湖旅游业的经济、社会与环境功能,实施规模化经营、一体化发展战略,从理念识别（MI）、视觉识别（VI）、行为识别（BI）等角度协调构建旅游形象识别体系,在此基础上形成具有独特性与市场冲击力的总体形象理念,提炼出针对不同目标市场和消费群体的差异性极强的总体形象宣传口号,创造具有赣鄱特色的整体旅游新形象。根据鄱阳湖地脉、文脉、旅游资源特色与旅游产品主题,可将主题形象定位为：东方“山江湖”,世界“后花园”。与此相适应的整体形象宣传口号为：华夏“山江湖”都会之地,世界“山江湖”奇观胜境。     

产品设计中的人性化因素

通过对工业产品人性化设计中人的因素的分析和研究,阐明了人性化各因素之间的关系,提出了产品人性化设计的核心是人,只有把人对工业产品的多元需求、特别是人的精神与文化需求提升到一定高度的设计才是好的设计.