Through Life Analysis for Machine Tools: From Design to Remanufacture

Increasing awareness of environmental burden calls for a sensible transition of manufacturing from the traditional mode where products have only one cycle of service life after being produced to a sustainable mode where multiple cycles of service life are enabled through material recovery, reuse, and remanufacture. As both the means for product generation and a product of modern manufacturing processes, machine tools have been increasingly viewed as a critical element for improving through life and consequently, sustainability. This paper examines the life cycles of machine tools and recent advancement in extending their life cycles. A life cycle is defined as starting from the design, proceeding through the stages of manufacturing and usage, and completing by the end of the service life. Modular design techniques that facilitate the manufacture and assembly of machine tools and analytical methods for reliable machine state estimation and remaining service life prediction are presented. Extension beyond completion of the first service life is enabled by recover and recycle of material from worn/broken machines, and redesign methods that reduce the amount of new materials to be used for making the same product in the subsequent re-manufacturing processes to ultimately realize materials reuse. Opportunities and challenges for sustainable manufacturing in the context of cloud manufacturing are also highlighted.