Environmental impact: New design application targets cost and compliance issues
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 3/31/2009 12:35:00 PM
Design-for-environment tools have been added to Boothroyd Dewhurst’s DFMA 2009 Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) software suite.
The new release offers engineering teams these capabilities:
• Assess the environmental impact of their products;
• Estimate the cost of machining a batch of parts when using a devoted machining cell; and
• Run a quick machining estimate, as well as the existing full analysis feature.
“We are responding to a number of market trends and user requests with this new release,” says Dr. Winston Knight, senior VP, Boothroyd Dewhurst. “Manufacturers are more aware that addressing the environmental impact of their products will soon be a requirement for entry into major markets. Designers can now select the best materials for greener products, even as they innovate with DFMA to build more performance into efficient, leaner designs.”
The DFMA 2009 software suite guides engineers through simplification of a product design, and quickly estimates assembly labor and part manufacturing costs. It identifies the major cost drivers associated with a wide range of choices for part manufacture and finishing.
This quantitative, multidisciplinary approach to cost assessment helps companies create innovative, high-quality products that are more economical to manufacture. “Downstream” cost reduction for the extended organization is a considerable side benefit: When products have fewer parts, companies can streamline suppliers, inventory, shipping and digital archives. When products are easier to manufacture, companies can improve factory output and overall resource use.
The new environmental capabilities in DFMA 2009 allow product designers to conduct an environmental assessment: During the concept stage, they can evaluate the impact of material selection as well as account for the end-of-life status of their product.
The analysis prompts designers to select from the DFMA database the materials they prefer to use—or avoid—and then reveals the proportions (by weight) of those materials in the product. It also estimates and designates the proportions of product that go to different end-of-life destinations, including reuse, recycling, landfill, and incineration. These measures help manufacturers meet such requirements as the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations.
