The paper deals with the feasibility of a flexible robotic cell for the disassembly of electronic components. First, the need for an automated process for the end of life management of electronic boards is motivated: the reuse of electronic components represents a potential cost saving opportunity for a class of electronic board producers, other than an effective means to improve the waste management efficiency and the sustainability of the electronics sector. Then, starting from a state of the art survey, a technical implementation of the cell is proposed. Finally, some preliminary tests of the disassembly equipment, aimed at setting the most relevant process parameters, are described.

Modularization is a current issue in the context of plant design. A modular system aims to reduce lead time and cost in design phases. An oil & gas plant consists of many Engineered-To-Order solutions to be submitted and approved during the negotiation phase. In this context, design tools and methods are necessary to support the design life cycle from the conceptual study to the detailed project. The paper proposes an approach to optimize the design of modularized oil & gas plants with a focus on the related steel structures. A test case shows the configuration workflow applied to a modular steel structure of about 400 tons. The modularized layout has been optimized using genetic algorithms. A Knowledge Base has been described to support the configuration phase related to the conceptual design. Design rules and metrics have been formalized from the analysis of past solutions.

In industrialized countries, packaging waste is one of the major issues to deal with, representing around 35% of the total municipal solid waste yearly generated. Therefore, an analysis and an environmental assessment of packaging systems are necessary. This paper aims at analyzing and comparing the environmental performances of two different packaging for domestic hoods. It shows how, through a packaging redesign, it is possible to obtain a reduction of the environmental impacts. This study has been performed in accordance with the international standards ISO 14040/14044, by using attributional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) from Cradle to Gate. The functional unit has been defined as the packaging of a single household hood. Primary data have been provided by a household hood manufacturer, while secondary data have been obtained from the Ecoinvent database. LCA software SimaPro 8.5 has been used to carry out the life cycle assessment, and ReCiPe method has been chosen for the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) stage. The results have shown the new packaging model being able to cut down the environmental impacts of approximately 30%. These outcomes may be used by household manufacturers to improve performances and design solutions of their different packaging.

The paper proposes a methodological approach to support the multi-objective (i.e. cost and structural performance) optimization of complex systems, typical of the oil & gas sector. The complexity is managed through a double-level of optimization. The first one, based on simplified product models (1-D and 0-D), considers an analytical approach for the structural behavior and a parametric one for the cost estimation. The second level considers the use of a 3-D FEM solver for structural simulations, and an analytical tool for the cost estimation. As case study, the paper proposes the design optimization of an oil & gas chimney for gas turbines. The workflow analyzed during the case study describes the use of a multi-objective and multi-level approach to optimize cost, weigh, and structural behavior of oil & gas ducts.

Nowadays, electromagnetic high-frequency induction is very used for different non-contact heating applications such as the molding process. Every molding process requires the preheating and the thermal maintenance of the molds, to enhance the filling phase and the quality of the final products. In this context, an induction heating system, mostly, is a customized equipment. The design and definition of an induction equipment depends on the target application. This technology is highly efficient and performant, however it provides a high-energy consumption. Therefore, optimization strategies are very suitable to reduce energy cost and consumption. The proposed paper aims to define a method to optimize the induction heating of a mold in terms of time, consumption, and achieved temperature. The proposed optimization method involves genetic algorithms to define the design parameters related to geometry and controller. A test case describes the design of an induction heating system for a polyurethane molding process, which is the soles foaming. This case study deals with the multi-objective optimization of parameters such as the geometrical dimensions, the inductor sizing, and the controller setting. The multi-objective optimization aims to reduce the energy consumption and to increase the wall temperature of the mold.

The goal of sustainable development through the product innovation is a global challenge that Academia and Industries are addressing. The regulatory pressure and the growing demand of eco-friendly products by consumers are two of its main drivers, especially in the household appliances sector. For this aim, manufactures need to change the design approach in order to extend the boundaries of the benchmark analysis of possible innovations: (i) multi-objective criteria should be taken into account such as the environmental issues, costs, technical performances, etc., and (ii) a life cycle thinking has to be adopted to consider long terms benefits or impacts. However, the literature highlights the lack of structured methods able to support the R&D activity according to these perspectives. For this aim, the present paper provides a systematic approach, which exploits lifecycle and innovation tools to effectively support designers in the development of sustainable solutions in a long term perspective. The proposed approach has been applied in real case study to increase the energy efficiency of a domestic refrigerator. In particular, the insulation module has been redesigned by comparing several alternatives in terms of environmental performances and costs over the product lifespan to effectively evaluate the consistency of the developed eco-innovations.

Maritime vessels have long service life and great costs of building, manning, operating, maintaining and repairing. Making a consistent lifecycle model among the different vessel typologies, repeatable with the same level of detail and comparable for the implementation of decision-making strategies, remains an open question. This paper aims to define a suitable lifecycle model in the context of maritime vessels to cope with the current limitations of ad-hoc and fragmented methods. The model considers the main aspects involved in the vessel lifecycle such as building materials, manufacturing and assembly, maintenance/service, operational activities, use, etc. The model provides a common structure for the lifecycle assessment (LCA) and lifecycle cost analysis (LCCA) including the way to retrieve and to collect the data necessary for the analysis starting from the available project documentation and the design models. The method is flexible and it is able to cover a large variety of maritime vessel typologies. As example, a luxury yacht has been analysed using the developed method, demonstrating the applicability of the proposed model in one of the most critical vessel typology.

This paper aims to analyze the attitude and the awareness of environmental sustainability issues within diverse Italian industrial companies. A survey has involved a balanced sample of companies operating in different industrial sectors. Considering the survey’s results it can be concluded that: (i) environmental sustainability is an opportunity and a current market requirement, (ii) environmental sustainability is not formalized, since specific methods and tools are not used in technical departments, and (iii) environmental decisions are mainly made by specific key figures (i.e. energy/environmental manager). This analysis can be considered as a useful starting point for the framework formalization of eco-design approaches and tools able to bring eco-design principles into the work of technical departments with the aim to foster the future development of green and sustainable products and services.

Nowadays in many industrial applications, i.e. electrical household appliances, it is necessary to have a robust and safe control for some variables involved in the analysis of the performances of different products. In addition, the recent eco-design directives require products increasingly eco-friendly and eco-efficient, preserving high-performance but a low power consumption. For these reasons, the physical prototypes of products require many expensive and complex tests in term of time, resources and qualified personnel involved. To overcome these limitations, the proposed approach is focused on the use of virtual prototyping tools, which support and reduce the expensive physical experiments. The main objective of this paper is the development, implementation and testing of an innovative methodology, which could be an improvement for the sustainable design of induction hobs. Induction heating applied to the domestic cooking has significantly evolved since the first cooking hobs appeared. Different issues such as maximum power available for heating a pot, dimensional compactness of the hobs, or inverter electronics efficiency have achieved a great development. The proposed methodology provides the development of a multi-physic model which is able to estimate the efficiency of the induction hobs starting from the design data of the project. In particular, the multi-physic model is composed by an electromagnetic simulation and a thermal simulation. The electromagnetic simulation, starting from electrical values such as voltage, current and frequency, is able to simulate the eddy current induced in the bottom of the pot, and resistance leads to the Joulean heating of the material. The thermal simulation is able to measure the energy consumption during the operational phase and the temperature reached by the materials. Therefore, the thermal power obtained by the Joulean heating is, at the same time, the output of the electromagnetic simulation and the input of the thermal one. The proposed model can be applied to design product and simulate the performance considering different operating conditions such as different types of cookers, different coils and different materials. Through the use of virtual prototyping tools is possible to control the heat flux on the whole system (stove, pot, water), and to evaluate the energy efficiency during the operational phase. The proposed tool makes the product-engineer more aware about decision-making strategies in order to achieve an energy saving, calculated over the whole life cycle.

The market of the hybrid electric vehicles has been increasing for several years. Different commercial EV and PHEV solutions are available for passenger cars and light vehicles for freight deliveries. However, the market of heavy trucks still regards traditional ICE vehicles powered by diesel oil fuel. The recent interest for electric solutions have been pushing the development of the hybrid solutions, but only micro-hybrid systems are considered feasible for heavy truck applications. The proposed research aims to define a methodological approach with a virtual model in order to simulate the behavior of a hybrid heavy truck. The scope of this research is the feasibility analysis of a retrofit hybrid heavy truck. A real driving cycle has been used in order to obtain reliable results in terms of cost, energy consumption and gas emission. The layout of the hybrid system has been proposed as well as the sizing of battery and electric motor. A commercial tool has been used for the vehicle modelling and simulation. As a test case, an 18-ton truck has been analyzed with a 10-liter diesel engine. Firstly, the simulation of the diesel truck has been reproduced considering the real driving cycle data. Secondly, the simulation activity has been focused on the evaluation of the hybrid system behavior by investigating different battery sizes with the same boundary conditions related to the real driving cycle.

Search engine efficiency is an essential prerequisite to ensure a satisfactory on-line purchasing experience. Despite powerful tools available today, search engine is limited to a semantic elaboration of keywords and they do not allow users finding product categories that do not belong to their knowledge sphere. In this context, in order to make an effective search engine it is necessary to provide tools able to understand what the user is looking for and suggest the products that best satisfy their needs, regardless of users’ background. To this aim, this paper proposes an innovative smart search strategy, based on artificial intelligence technologies. In order to highlight the system potential, the smart object market case study has been considered. The SOs market is grown so quickly to disorient the average user and it offer a wide variety of products apparently similar, but that are characterized by different features that the average user fails to perceive.

A product is chosen by users not only for the features it offers but also for the perceived experience of use. This statement widely recognized in literature highlight that key issues for the success of interactive products are the practical, experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of interaction. In the last years, gesture-based interfaces have been introduced to make the experience of interaction more emotional, intuitive and natural. For this reason, the design and development of products integrated gesture-based interfaces represent a challenging issue. In this context, a User-Centered Design (UCD) method to implement novel interaction paradigms into traditional consumer products is proposed. Its application in a real case study addresses the development and prototyping of a system exploiting gesture-based interaction to train aspiring conductors of orchestra. If a young musician wants to play a guitar, it is usually no great problem to find one, but if a musician wants to learn the ins and outs of being a conductor, the problem shifts to search for an electronic device managed by hands as used by conductors. The developed system provides three main functionalities: tempo control, velocity control and instruments activation. It represents both a use case to validate the proposed UCD method and an innovative solution in the context of aspiring conductor’s training.

In the last few years, the environmental problem has become a very serious issue and the research world has answered to this growing interest with the development of a high number of ecodesign methods and tools. However their use in real contexts is still quite low, due to their complexity, time consuming and need for specific knowledge. From this reason, it comes the need for tools that support designers in the implementation of ecodesign strategies. This paper presents the Case Based Reasoning (CBR) methodology and tool, which represents the knowledge and the best practices for manufacturing products. It supports designers in the re-design process of products, by allowing them to gradually acquire knowledge and to solve problems in a rapid and simplified way, through the collection and sharing of ecodesign knowledge in a structured Database. The tool has been tested into two industrial companies to verify its potentialities, evaluate its usability and identify its limits.

A growing interest toward sustainability actions at every level is characterizing the industrial sector. Following the environmental trend, further developments and improvements regarding the sustainability assessment of manufacturing processes is needed. With a particular focus on machining processes, the optimization of working parameters can represent a valid step forward in sustainable manufacturing. This paper aims to provide companies with the needed tool to independently asses the environmental performance of their customized machining operations. The purpose of the presented work is then to demonstrate that energy consumption calculated with empirical mathematical models available in literature, gives the greatest contribution to the environmental impact for a selection of machining processes by means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Such objective lead to a clear need of specific models for the calculation of environmental impact of machining processes instead of available LCA datasets. Available mathematical models are adopted to provide a realistic energy consumption profile by using processing time variables. Such values are calculated through 3D models whose are used to recognize the needed manufacturing operations together with relative processing times. In order to validate the previous assumption, a couple of machining processes have been selected as reference and analyzed by setting up a detailed Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) model. Results shown that among the different inputs and outputs, the energy consumption carries the highest impact. Over 90% of the total impact for the chosen impact categories (Global Warming Potential and Eco-Costs) is attributable to the energy consumption meaning that, for the sake of simplification, the environmental profile of such operations is overlapped by its energy consumption.

Circular economy is largely recognized as the univocal economic model that guarantees a long-term sustainability, decoupling the economic growth and the finite resources consumption. As a prerequisite, it requires to realize product closed-loop lifecycles. However, the management of the EoL phase during the design process is a complex task, due to the fact that it is the most far away phase, in terms of time, from the moment of the product conception. For this reason, usually, manufacturers and EoL stakeholders do not actively collaborate in optimizing the product lifecycle performances. This paper wants to overcome this lack proposing a method to formalize, collect and classify the EoL knowledge. The main outcome is a structured database containing positive and negative knowledge about best practices and disassembly problems faced during dismantling activities. The knowledge classification rules are based both on product characteristics (e.g. product families, target components, assembly methods, etc.) and on other more general aspects (e.g. motivations of the disassembly, handling difficulties, etc.). Through the sharing of this knowledge, the gap between design departments and EoL stakeholders can be reduced with the aim to improve EoL performances and the overall resource efficiency. This work is focused on an out-of-service washing machine case study. The product has been manually disassembled by expert operators, observing and rating the significant problems. Their interpretation has allowed to create a set of specific design guidelines, organized according to the defined rules. The classified knowledge has been used by non-expert designers (undergraduate students) as a tool to guide the re-design activities. Different design solutions (e.g. homogenization of screws, reduction of component number, etc.) have been implemented to configure a new washing machine version, improved from the disassemblability point of view. The obtained results have confirmed the usefulness of the disassembly knowledge sharing in supporting Design for EoL activities and, furthermore, in non-skilled operators training. In conclusion, this research work contributes to the state of the art linking stakeholders involved in the Beginning of Life (BoL) with stakeholders responsible of the EoL management. Furthermore, the proposed work leads to relevant improvements in product lifecycle performances. The proposed knowledge database represents the needed resource to effectively extend the producer responsibility and to close the current gap between manufacturers and dismantlers.

Nowadays, the energy factor is growing in importance because it really affects the production costs of factories. Not least, energy regulation and rules are stricter as time goes by. Tools for energy monitoring are needed. The objective of this work is to propose a tool aimed to assess the energy value flowing in a production system, according to the Energy Value Stream Mapping method (EVSM). The final goal is to increase the sustainability of the processes through identification of energy wastes, aiming at eliminating them. The tool is a lean graphic instrument; it permits to represent explicitly the energy flows along the process with respect to the concept of value creation. The tool permits to clearly identify and quantify different types of energy flows concerning different carriers, even in a complex production plant where multiple energy carriers act at the same time. Finally, it will be shown the testing of the tool in a household appliances production system.

The actual growing world energy demand is generating strong attention to the energy efficiency and to the environmental sustainability. The residential sector is one of the most energy-intensive reaching about 25% of global energy consumption. Furthermore, it is difficult to understand the real energy use in residential buildings suggesting the development of methodologies and tools to monitor and assess their energy performances. Such an analysis requires defining all the actors, their interaction rules and the intelligent management of a large amount of data. In addition to this, the energy performances of the home environment are closely related to the specific case under investigation, in fact it imposes the analysis of the particular application scenario and the target users to extract parameters able to describe the building behavior. They are related to the technological characteristics of the systems, to the external environment (e.g. external temperature, solar irradiation, etc.) and to the user needs and habits. It introduces some complexities, because many of these data are difficult to find and to predict. Another cause of complexity was introduced by the information and communication technologies (ICT) that creates new relationship between home devices fostering the spread of smart systems. In this scenario, simulation tools have been developed to grasp the real energy performance of a building, but they require a high level of detail for the input data which are often difficult to find. Otherwise, other tools are built for much simplified simulations and typically addressed to inexperienced users neglecting the real complexities of the system. For this reason, the paper presents a new design approach that aims to develop knowledge-based tools with architecture able to simulate the real behavior of the building considering all the actors and their interaction rules, but at the same time containing the features that allow them to be used in fast simulations or by inexperienced users. One of the focuses is the development of an intelligent user interface that, when requested, is able to automate and simplify data entry process. It is particularly useful when the user does not know the necessary input data for the simulation, e.g. energy consumption profiles, detailed features of the building, etc. All the steps of the proposed approach are described in the paper. In the first section is highlighted how the key parameters have been found and how they are organized as creating a knowledge base, while in the second section is shown the operation of the smart user interface and of the simulation tool. The results demonstrate that the proposed knowledge-based approach generates real benefits by simplifying and speeding up the data entry. Furthermore, the study shows how the smart user interface allows performing complex simulations also to novice users.

Due to the increasing pressure of legislations and market, the environmental sustainability is becoming a key competitive factor for companies. In specific markets, as the Northern Europe one, customers are very careful on the quality and sustainability of products, thus companies has to design and manufacture green goods. In this context, there is a strong need of effective design tools and platform which allows to configure products applying the life cycle paradigm and with the “environment on mind”. Currently in the market there are only few examples of products designed taking into account the eco-design concepts. In particular, for mechatronic or energy using products only the use phase is usually considered and all the re-design strategies aim to reduce the energy consumption. This is essentially due to the fact that there is a lack of tools and design platforms, which are easy to use and well integrated with the traditional design tools and with the design processes of companies. This paper wants to demonstrate the usefulness of a set of interoperable eco-design tools, the G.EN.ESI platform, in supporting the re-design of a mechatronic product. The proposed case study, realized in collaboration with an Italian leading company in the sector of household appliances, focuses on the improvement of a domestic cooker hood with the final objective to obtain a more sustainable product. The in-depth experimentation, for the duration of more than 3 months, involved different stakeholders within the company (designers, environmental expert, etc.), with the aim to validate the G.EN.ESI platform tools in different phases of the re-design process. The case study showed that the use of the platform has supported the company in the identification of the environmental hot-spots and during the product re-design phase, considering the whole life cycle. The re-engineered cooker hood exhibits relevant improvements in the most important environmental and economic indicators (environmental impact, energy efficiency, disassemblability, recyclability, etc.). Also a detailed analysis of the platform usability has been performed in order to measure if the tools completely fulfil the expectations of the final users. Finally, the level of integration within the company processes has been evaluated with a dedicated questionnaire. The results of these last analyses showed that the G.EN.ESI platform is appropriate to support a company to improve the sustainability of their products without the needs to heavily alter the traditional design process.

Over the last years, the industrial energy consumption has become a critical issue and several energy management systems have been developed. At the same time, the lean philosophy has been used to evaluate the critical points of the production processes. One of the main tools used by lean champions is the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to identify “bottlenecks” and also to provide graphically areas of interest for improvement within the shop floor. Current VSM models do not include information about energy as a fundamental content. To overcome this lack, the present work is focused on the development of a new extended VSM tool able to map the energy consumption. Energy value Stream mapping (EVSM) is a tool to evaluate issues related to the energy consumption. Through it, the energy manager can pursue the minimum energy consumption. The proposed tool has been applied and tested in a real case study.