Pascal Stoffels

Energy engineering in the virtual factory

Energy engineering is an emerging topic in manufacturing plants due to environmental and economic reasons. It is not enough to save energy during the utilization of products, but the production should be considered as well. Moreover, idle times during production should be taken into account by switching the systems and the subsystems into modes that require less energy inputs. Furthermore energy related properties should be considered as early-as-possible in the plant process development, because in this phase the influence on the later energy consumption is considerable. Hence, methods for energy optimization in production are combined with virtual plant engineering to consider energy aspects as early as possible in plant design. Both engineering domains contribute to an integrated process for energy engineering in the virtual factory.

Energy Efficiency Engineering—Towards an Integrated Method Framework for Energy-Oriented Product and Production Development

Energy efficiency in all areas of the product lifecycle gets more and more important. Besides the use phase that is often addressed through technological solutions, the production phase is also in focus as it determines the environmental impacts of a company to a high degree. Established operational methods that consider energy efficiency reactively are often already exploited. This contribution therefore focuses on methods that are applied in early phases of the product and production development process. On the basis of a correlation matrix that correlates the interrelationships between the three dimensions product, material and production, promising areas in the product creation process are analysed. This framework provides a general basis for the development and application of integrated analysis and improvement methods.

Early System Simulation to Support EcoDesign of Vehicle Concepts

Environmental restrictions request new – potentially revolutionary – mobility concepts which simultaneously address both user requirements and efficiency aspects. Early system simulation within the development process is able to support new development projects on the conceptual level. In an overall effort to support ecodesign as early as possible in the development process, this paper introduces a process model for ecodesign-oriented product development which focuses on these specific aspects. Special focus is set on the use of modeling and simulation in the conceptual design phase to evaluate and compare the energy efficiency and lifecycle assessment on the example of vehicle concepts.

Integrierte Definition von Produkt, Produktion und Material zur Steigerung der Ressourceneffizienz

Due to the growing scarcity of resources and the environmental impacts caused by resource consumption resource efficiency along the product lifecycle is becoming increasingly important. Resource efficiency is determined by the combination of product, production and material. In addition to the resource use, resource efficiency also takes into consideration the technical and economic performance. For this reason, a multidimensional view is required. Addressing resource efficiency already during development within the three fields product, production and material definition provides the largest potential for positive influence, as the responsible characteristics are determined there. This thesis presents an integrated process model that focuses on the definition of product, production and material and introduces integrated assessment and selection steps within the concept and component phases. The process begins with an ecological-technical-economical assessment of alternative combinations of product, production and material solution. Based on the assessments results, the further considered combinations are narrowed and finally selected. An appropriate method, the integrated morphological chart implemented in an efficient software tool, supports this process.