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Industrial ProjectsOngoing Projects | Previous Projects Ongoing ProjectsProject title: Breseight Australia and UNSW - Innovation Connection Research GrantProject partner;
The research project conducted between Breseight Australia and UNSW aims to create a designer software tool that allows an advanced designer to apply lattice structures to a supplied object and optimise it through user-input functional requirements and boundaries.
Previous ProjectsProject title: ROMANCE-Resource flOw Mapping of Key engineering materials in Australia: a case of Nikel and Cobalt ElementsProject partner;
This project aims to investigate into the resource flow of key engineering materials in Australia from a cradle to cradle perspective. Two elements are initially targeted for this project: nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co). Project title: Suez, Resource Co. and UNSW - Energy Flow ModellingProject partner;
This project aims to map and model the energy flows through one of Suez and Resource Co.'s alternative fuel generation plants. Project title: ARC Linkage Project – Sustainability Cockpit: an Integrated tool for assessment and improvement of sustainability in manufacturingProject partners:
This project aims to understand the relation between the traditional business indicators, such as cost, and the environmental indicators, such as carbon footprint. The outcome of this project will be an integrated tool which will allow manufacturers to assess and improve their environmental footprint in a cost effective manner. Project title: Energy and water efficiency in Australia manufacturingFunded by: Australia Research Council Project partner: Baxter Australia This project is part of the collaboration with Baxter Australia and the Joint German-Australian Research Group. The project aims to investigate how energy and water flow in manufacturing environment in order to identify the hot spots for reduction or reclamation of energy and water usage. The outcome of the project will be to develop technical solutions to increase the efficient usage of energy and water on a continuous base. Project title: Energy and Eco-efficiency of manufacturing processesFunded by: Advanced Manufacturing CRC Manufacturing processes are poorly documented in terms of their energy and eco-efficiency. Majority of the time, the fixed energy consumption due to unloaded motors, coolant pumps, controllers, fans and other peripheral equipments are not taken into account. In addition, the energy requirements depend on the production rate and are consequently not constant, as assumed in the literature. This lack of thorough analysis of manufacturing processes has major consequences that the opportunities are often not recognised in terms of energy and emission reduction in order to achieve the targets set by the governments. Objective of this project is to develop reliable methods of predicting energy consumption and the associated environmental impact of manufacturing processes. The methodology will be based on empirical models developed through measuring energy consumption during a specific manufacturing process. Project title: Resource, Energy and Eco Efficiencies model for a Dynamic Manufacturing System ProjectFunded by: DAAD-GO8 Brief: This project aims to develop a combined resource, energy and eco-efficiency model for the assessment of production systems with dynamic relationships. This project conducted systematic investigations of relevant auxiliary resources as well as their relationships with process parameters for machining processes. The forecasting models were integrated into a generic process model for comprehensive modelling and evaluation of production processes and systems from both economic and environmental perspectives. Project title: End-of-Life treatment of LCD screens and Lithium-Ion batteriesProject partner: Technische Universität Braunschweig in Braunschweig Waste of Electrical and Electronic Products (WEEE) is of major concern for the manufacturing industry as well as for the society. This project aims at developing feasible End-of-Life solutions for WEEE products such as LCD screens and Li-Ion batteries. The scope of the project includes design of collection networks and disassembly and recycling technologies. Project title: Life Cycle Assessment of Park Furniture for Conservation AreasProject partner: Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) The Life Cycle Engineering and Management Research Group @ UNSW (LCEM) (a Life cycle consultant team) has collaborated with the Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) (Customer), ARUP (an engineer consultant team) and Edaw l AECOM Inc. (Edaw) (a designer team) on a Design for Environment project on a sustainable park furniture suite project. This project was conducted through the Centre of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology @ UNSW (SMaRT). The aim was to design the least environmental impacts park furniture suite for three conservation areas. LCEM is a environmental assessment expert which assess the environmental impacts of the entire life cycle of different designs of the furnitures. This is an iterative process all life cycle activities for the furniture which include Park Seat, Park bench and Picnic setting with shelter and toilet facilities. Project title: Composites: Calculating Their Embodied Energy StudyProject partner: Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI), the State of Queensland The ‘Composites: Calculating Their Embodied Energy Study’ is a multi-partner collaboration project, led by the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI), the State of Queensland. The main objective is to analyse the embodied energy of the cradle-to-factory and cradle-to-grave. The cradle-to-factory is the analysis for making 1 kilogram of the glass or carbon fibre reinforced plastics which comprises of the raw material including the energy extraction and the transportation from suppliers to the composite manufacturers. The cradle-to-grave analysis is the calculation from the total amount of the composite materials required to make a composite product down to the manufacturing processes; the usage i.e. the installation and maintenance activities; and the End-of-life (EOL) life cycle stages that covers the waste collection transportation and the disposal processes. Project title: Lifecycle Assessment for Single Use Surgical Instruments in Comparison with Multi Use Surgical InstrumentsProject partner: AESCULAP AG & CO.KG This project is part of the collaboration with the Joint German-Australian Research Group. The goal of the proposed project is to assess the environmental impact of the two types of surgical scissors of the AESCULAP AG by conducting a screening LCA. The analysis should result in an evaluation of which product’s life cycle has the less environmental impact. The analysis should include a cradle-to-gate as well as a cradle-to-grave assessment identifying also hot spots of environmental impact throughout the life cycle of both products. Project title: Re-use and Recycling of AppliancesProject partner: CRC - IMST In recent years recycling of consumer products has become a growing issue for manufacturers and users of these products. Several countries have already introduced policies and legislation, forcing manufacturers to recycle their own products. Networks for collecting used products have been set up and product designs have been reviewed towards easier disassembly and recyclability. Shreddding and material recycling as the most commonly used technology today is a very competitive and economical end-of-life option and in many cases more profitable than disposal into land-fill. However, material recycling is not always the optimum solution with regard to minimising environmental impacts of a product since it needs energy and reproduction for making new components. The re-use of components or of entire products can be a much better long term solution, but many unsolved problems associated with the re-use of components currently prevent this strategy from wider application. The aim of the project is to generate new data on the re-use and recycling of consumer products and to develop viable methodologies that will help improve the reuse/recycling ratios through better design of the products. Issues that will be investigated are the technical and economical assessment of component values as well as the legal implications and warranty of re-used components. Project title: Lifetime Prediction of Industrial Products for Re-useProject partner: ARC Discovery Product disposal responsibility has shifted from consumers to manufacturers. Re-use of components is the most effdicient strategy for product receovery, which requires reliable methods for assessing the quality and remaining life of a used component. The aim of this project is to develop a lifetime model to estimate the remaining life and quality of a used component. This will enable manufacturers to estimate the potential reusability of a component without going through costly and time consuming disassembly processes. In addition, the data from te lifetime monitoring process will provide information for improving the design and manufacture of environmentally friendly products.
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