Sachin U Nimbalkar

Environmental and Economic Implications of Distributed Additive Manufacturing: The Case of Injection Mold Tooling

Summary Additive manufacturing (AM) holds great potentials in enabling superior engineering functionality, streamlining supply chains, and reducing life cycle impacts compared to conventional manufacturing (CM). This study estimates the net changes in supply-chain lead time, life cycle primary energy consumption, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and life cycle costs (LCC) associated with AM technologies for the case of injection molding, to shed light on the environmental and economic advantages of a shift from international or onshore CM to AM in the United States. A systems modeling framework is developed, with integrations of lead-time analysis, life cycle inventory analysis, LCC model, and scenarios considering design differences, supply-chain options, productions, maintenance, and AM technological developments. AM yields a reduction potential of 3% to 5% primary energy, 4% to 7% GHG emissions, 12% to 60% lead time, and 15% to 35% cost over 1 million cycles of the injection molding production depending on the AM technology advancement in future. The economic advantages indicate the significant role of AM technology in raising global manufacturing competitiveness of local producers, while the relatively small environmental benefits highlight the necessity of considering trade-offs and balance techniques between environmental and economic performances when AM is adopted in the tooling industry. The results also help pinpoint the technological innovations in AM that could lead to broader benefits in future.

Comparison of One- and Two-Variable Linear Regression Models and Classic Energy Intensity for Energy Performance Tracking of Two Manufacturing Sectors

Manufacturing facilities consumed about 32% of total domestic energy in the United States in 2016. To evaluate the energy savings achieved through the implementation of energy conservation projects...

Technologies and Materials for Recovering Waste Heat in Harsh Environments

A large amount (7,204 TBtu/year) of energy is used for process heating by the manufacturing sector in the United States (US). This energy is in the form of fuels mostly natural gas with some coal or other fuels and steam generated using fuels such as natural gas, coal, by-product fuels, and some others. Combustion of these fuels results in the release of heat, which is used for process heating, and in the generation of combustion products that are discharged from the heating system. All major US industries use heating equipment such as furnaces, ovens, heaters, kilns, and dryers. The hot exhaust gases from this equipment, after providing the necessary process heat, are discharged into the atmosphere through stacks. This report deals with identification of industries and industrial heating processes in which the exhaust gases are at high temperature (>1200 F), contain all of the types of reactive constituents described, and can be considered as harsh or contaminated. It also identifies specific issues related to WHR for each of these processes or waste heat streams.

Save Energy Now Assessments Results 2008 Detailed Report

In October 2005, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Bodman launched his Easy Ways to Save Energy campaign with a promise to provide energy assessments to 200 of the largest U.S. manufacturing plants. DOEs Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) responded to the Secretarys campaign with its Save Energy Now initiative, featuring a new and highly cost-effective form of energy savings assessment. The approach for these assessments drew heavily on the existing resources of ITPs technology delivery component. Over the years, ITP Technology Delivery has worked with industry partners to assemble a suite of respected software tools, proven assessment protocols, training curricula, certified energy experts, and strong partnerships for deployment. The Save Energy Now assessments conducted in calendar year 2006 focused on natural gas savings and targeted many of the nations largest manufacturing plants - those that consume at least 1 TBtu of energy annually. The 2006 Save Energy Now assessments focused primarily on assessments of steam and process heating systems, which account for an estimated 74% of all natural gas use by U.S. manufacturing plants. Because of the success of the Save Energy Now assessments conducted in 2006 and 2007, the program was expanded and enhanced in two major ways in 2008: (1) a new goal was set to perform at least 260 assessments; and (2) the assessment focus was expanded to include pumping, compressed air, and fan systems in addition to steam and process heating. DOE ITP also has developed software tools to assess energy efficiency improvement opportunities in pumping, compressed air, and fan systems. The Save Energy Now assessments integrate a strong training component designed to teach industrial plant personnel how to use DOEs opportunity assessment software tools. This approach has the advantages of promoting strong buy-in of plant personnel for the assessment and its outcomes and preparing them better to independently replicate the assessment process at the companys other facilities. Another important element of the Save Energy Now assessment process is the follow-up process used to identify how many of the recommended savings opportunities from individual assessments have been implemented in the industrial plants. Plant personnel involved with the Save Energy Now assessments are contacted 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months after individual assessments are completed to determine implementation results. A total of 260 Save Energy Now assessments were successfully completed in calendar year 2008. This means that a total of 718 assessments were completed in 2006, 2007, and 2008. As of July 2009, we have received a total of 239 summary reports from the ESAs that were conducted in year 2008. Hence, at the time that this report was prepared, 680 final assessment reports were completed (200 from year 2006, 241 from year 2007, and 239 from year 2008). The total identified potential cost savings from these 680 assessments is

Energy and emissions saving potential of additive manufacturing: the case of lightweight aircraft components

1.1 billion per year, including natural gas savings of about 98 TBtu per year. These results, if fully implemented, could reduce CO{sub 2} emissions by about 8.9 million metric tons annually. When this report was prepared, data on implementation of recommended energy and cost savings measures from 488 Save Energy Now assessments were available. For these 488 plants, measures saving a total of

From Energy Assessment to Maximum Implementation: Reducing the "Implementation Gap" for Save Energy Now LEADERS 1

147 million per year have been implemented, measures that will save

Training and Certification Programs on Industrial Energy Systems in the United States

169 million per year are in the process of being implemented, and plants are planning implementation of measures that will save another

Industrial Energy Training and Certification

239 million per year. The implemented recommendations are already achieving total CO{sub 2} reductions of about 1.8 million metric tons per year. This report provides a summary of the key results for the Save Energy Now assessments completed in 2008; details of the 6-month, 12-month, and 24-month implementation results obtained to date; and an evaluation of these implementation results. This report also summarizes key accomplishments, findings, and lessons learned from all the Save Energy Now assessments completed to date. A separate report (Wright et al. 2010) provides more detailed information on key results for all of the 2008 assessments of steam, process heating, pumping, compressed air, and fan systems. Two prior reports (Wright et al. 2007 and Wright et al. 2009) detail the results from the 2006 and 2007 assessments and discuss the major components of the assessment process and improvements in the process made in 2007.