Sustainable manufacturing,life cycle thinking and the circular economy

Achieving sustainable patterns of consumption and production is perhaps the biggest challenge facing our society today. The de-mand for more safe environmentally benign products is rising and many companies are looking for new ways to progressively improve the sus-tainability of their products. Moreover, there are numerous opportunities and countless innovations, technological as well as non-technologi-cal,that need to be exploited to improve the sustainability of products. Manufacturing industry is an important sector of any economy and hasthe potential to become a driving force for enabling sustainable patterns of production and consumption through introducing efficient productionpractices and developing products and services that help reduce environmental impacts. The benefits of adopting an integrated policy towardsproduct development based on life cycle thinking and eco-design to stimulate improvement of the environmental performance of each part ofproduct life cycle phases and achieve sustainable patterns of production and consumption are emphasized. The challenges in implementingsustainable manufacturing and the circular economy approaches are listed. A number of solutions are suggested to face up these challenges,for instance, increased awareness of enterprises particularly SME's of product life cycle issues and the opportunities that are available for costsavings and profit making from eco-innovation in product development for both the domestic and export markets and providing practical helpand advice directly to enterprises on integrated product development to promote enterprise led Eco-innovation. Aiming at contributing to sus-tainable manufacturing in China, Sino-UK Low Carbon Manufacturing Consortium, a multi-disciplinary research and educational partnershipbetween academia, industry and government agencies in the UK and China with interest in sustainable manufacturing issues, has been formedrecently.The vision, aims and benefits of membership of the consortium are also discussed.

Prediction Model for Net Cutting Specific Energy in CNC Turning

A prediction model for net cutting specific energy in computer numerical control(CNC)turning based on turning parameters and tool wear is developed.The model can predict the net cutting energy consumption before turning.The prediction accuracy of the model is verified in AISI 1045 steel turning.The comparative experimental results show that the prediction accuracy of the model is significantly improved because the influence of tool wear is taken into account.Finally,the influences of turning parameters and tool wear on net cutting specific energy are studied.With the increase of cutting depth,the net cutting specific energy decreases.With the increase of spindle speed,the additional load loss power of spindle drive system increases,so the net cutting specific energy increases.The net cutting specific energy increases approximately linearly with tool wear.The results are helpful to formulate efficient and energy-saving CNC turning schemes and realize low‑carbon manufacturing.