Environmental comparison between a hot extrusion process and conventional machining processes through a Life Cycle Assessment approach

Nowadays manufacturing technologies have to be evaluated not only for the technical features they can provide to products, but also considering the environmental perspective as well. As long as the technological feasibility of a given process is guaranteed, processes minimizing resources and energy consumption have to be selected for manufacturing. With respect to this topic, the research studies in the domain of metal processing technologies predominantly focus on conventional material removal processes as milling and turning. Despite some exceptions, many other non-machining technologies, such as metal forming processes, are still not well documented in terms of their energy and resource efficiency, and related environmental impact. In this paper, an environmental challenge between two traditional technologies is developed: the environmental performances of a partial hot extrusion process and of a turning processes are quantified and compared. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach is implemented to properly analyze the considered processes. The material production step and the manufacturing phase to obtain a simple axy-symmetric aluminum component is considered for the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data collection step. Besides, the material and consumables usage and the consumed electrical power are measured in order to quantify the energy consumption of the manufacturing phase. Further, the environmental impacts related to the manufacturing of the extrusion dies and of the turning process are included in the analysis. The paper presents an early step of a wider research project aiming at identifying the greenest technologies as functions of given product features.