LCA
esd assignment 2 Cafetiere LCA LUKE A FIRTH
introduction
Functional Unit & System Boundaries
This assignment aims to analyse the environmental impacts of a cafetiere in order to find out its different environmental impacts and establish priorities with a view to producing redesign proposals. Its function is to press ground coffee through near boiling water to make cups of coffee. Comprised 16 separate parts (11 functional pieces and 5 fixings), the product can store 1L volume and make up to 5.5* cups of coffee per use, with a minimum of 2 cups per use to ensure the press can adequately travel through enough water to properly infuse. The functional unit for this product is therefore is to press the minimum 2 x 180ml cups of coffee (360ml)**. The study will analyse the impact of all of the cafetiere’s life cycle phases from manufacture, through use and to disposal. It will also take into account the energy imbued within the boiling water that passes through it during the use phase*** but not the water production or the coffee grains themselves. The human effort to operate the cafetiere will not be included in the study (due to difficulty measuring averages and its negligible effects). The product is not sold within packaging at the consumer level and so this and its effects will also not be included. The following assumptions have been made: *Standard measurements: 1 cup = 180ml, 9.5g coffee (The Coffee FAQ 2013). **That most of the time, cafetieres are used for 1-2 cups of coffee per day, 5 days a week (Real Coffee UK, 2014). ***Assuming 2.6Mj to heat 1L water (HyperPhysics 2009).
Allen (2013)
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inventory
Part, Material, Weight & Processes
1 CARAFE
Pyrex (Borosilicate Glass)
283.5g
Glass Blowing
Grinding
2 body
Steel
163g
Punching + Bending
Welding + Electroplating
3 handle
High Impact Polystyrene
24.5g
Injection Moulding
4 Metal cup
Steel
77g
Spinning
Electroplating
5 Upper Press
Martensitic Stainless Steel
21g
Punch
Welding
6 press Coil
Martensitic Stainless Steel
2g
Extrusion
Feeding Into Press
7 Lower press
Martensitic Stainless Steel
21g
Punch
8 Cup Insert
High Density Polypropylene
12g
Injection Moulding
9 Filter Mesh
Martensitic Stainless Steel
3.5g
Etched
10 Cup Bolt
Steel
3.5g
Rough Machining
11 Handle Bolt
Martensitic Stainless Steel
1.5g
Rough Machining
12 Handle Nut
Martensitic Stainless Steel
1.5g
Rough Machining
13 Cup Nut
Martensitic Stainless Steel
1.5g
Rough Machining
14 Press bolt
Martensitic Stainless Steel
4.5g
Rough Machining
15 Press Stem
Martensitic Stainless Steel
22g
Extrusion
16 Press Ball
High Impact Polystyrene
5.5g
Injection Moulding
Rough Machining
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Pyrex Borosilicate Glass (283.5g)
Martensitic Stainless Steel (82g)
Glass Blowing
Extrusion
Cast
Grinding
Rough Machining
Etched
High Impact Polystyrene (30g)
Injection Moulding
Steel (240g)
Punching + Bending
Spinning
Welding
Electroplating
Water 750L
Packaging
Assembly & Transport
Electricity 1.95Gj
Use Phase (3 Years)
Cafetiere Disposal
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User Energy
High Density Polypropylene (12g)
Injection Moulding
flow model
Part, Material, Weight & Processes
A powerful tool to demonstrate the inputs and outputs of all stages of the products life cycle is the flow model as illustrated left. The individual components are listed by material at the top and are followed through their separate manufacturing processes through distribution and use. The inputs that lay outside of the system boundary are greyed out, signifying that they are not included in the life cycle analysis. This style of visualisation excels at allowing users a good idea of the study and its boundaries at a glance.
Material Identification
Various tests were carried out to identify the different materials used in the product at home. The following methods were applied a long with research on common material usages:
Weighing
Burn Test
Density
Scratch Test
The Espresso Room (2009)
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CES ECO AUDIT
Cambridge Eco Selector Results
Overview + Life Cycle Phase Analysis The CES tool results (shown right in graphs and table form) are as follows: The use phase of the product constituted 83.6% of its impact for energy and CO2 footprint, due to the long life span (3 years) with high usage (once a day, 5 days a week 50 weeks a year). Coupled with the power intensive process of boiling water. It should be noted that the energy figures used for this are ideal scenario as any losses due to the efficiency of the device used to boil the water lay outside the system boundaries (it is recommended that a LCA of a kettle should be used for this purpose). The use phase result is also slightly variable due to the efficiency of the products use that cannot be accounted for using the CES, if the user wants a single cup of coffee, they still have to brew two due to the makeup of the product (potentially wasting the other cup) as clarified in the functional unit. The material phase is the second highest phase, accounting for 12% of the overall energy consumption and 11.8% of the products CO2 footprint. Mostly due to the production of the Pyrex carafe (see next pages). This indicates some limited opportunity for redesign. Manufacturing the product surprisingly had a very small relative contribution to the cafetieres overall energy and CO2 impacts, accounting for 3.3% and 4% respectively - most likely due to the relatively low energy intensive processes required (aside from the glass). Due to the lightweight and lack of packaging the CES rates both transport and disposal as very low to the overall impact, providing little opportunity for significant improvement through redesign. A noted limitation of the CES is its lack of ability to factor in design for disassembly as with this product all parts can be easily be disassembled into separate materials for end of life.
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Energy and CO2 Footprint Summary
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Energy (MJ)
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Material
Manufacture
Transport
Use
Disposal
Transport
Use
Disposal
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CO2 Footprint (kg)
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Phase Material Manufacture Transport Use Disposal Total (for first life) End of life potential
Material
Manufacture
Energy (MJ) 26.8 6.92 1.05 177 0.13 212 0
Energy (%) 12.6 3.3 0.5 83.6 0.1 100
CO2 (kg) 1.56 0.53 0.0743 11 0.00909 13.2 0
CO2 (%) 11.8 4.0 0.6 83.6 0.1 100
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Material
Manufacture
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Identifying The Impact Of Components The CES also produces easy to read tables as shown left and below,detailing each components impacts in each stage as well as the overall CO2 footprint of the product itself (shown below as 11kg).
Use
A strength of the CES is the speed of output. Its clear from both tables (left) that material and manufacture the Carafe has the greatest impact as the Pyrex (Borosilicate) has a high energy process with boric acid requiring high temperatures above that of traditional glass making. However as the largest component of the product, it should be expected that it will have the greatest impact. Highlighting a constraint of the CES; the lack of ability to compare the relative damaging properties of materials against each other, e.g. a large part made from recycled aluminium will have a larger environmental impact than an extremely small part of lead. In this case the Carafe constitutes 44.3% of the total mass of the product but only 29-33% of its impact. Pyrex is a good thermal insulator as well as being chemically stable highlighting another limitation of the CES in its inability to take into account the environmental effects that a material choice may have on the use phase. The CES may produce a better result for a Carafe produced from different plastics that affect human health through leaching of chemicals such as BPA as well as having poorer thermal qualities that could mean higher wastage from more coffee going cold before being used. The body is the second largest, but again may be due just to it being the second largest component at 160g (25% of mass) but accounting for 19% - 29% of the impact - making it definitely a higher priority to redesign than the Borosilicate - something not clear from the CES alone.
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SIMAPRO ANALYSIS
Full LCA Results Using Ecoindicator 99
Overview + Life Cycle Phase Analysis The LCA program SimaPro 8 has also been employed to conduct a study on the Cafetiere using its ‘level 3’ eco analysis tools:
Single Score Per Impact Category
The use phase is by far the highest environmental impact of the cafetiere, with the largest impact on the use of fossil fuels (~60%). This result is unsurprising as it is simply that of the power input and the effect mix associated with power stations to the consumer home through the UK power grid. The materials and manufacture phases of the product life cycle are bundled together when analysed by SimaPro and constitute the second highest impact area. Thanks to the breakdown of effects per impact category that SimaPro provides it can be seen that respiratory inorganics are the largest impact of this category, about 50% of the use phase. Remarkably the manufacture scores higher in terms of impact than the use phase in Carcinogens, Respiratory organics and ecotoxicity. In this analysis both transport stages and the disposal are remarkably low impact, demonstrating very clearly that there is only a very minor improvement opportunities to be found in redesigns based on these stages alone.
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Characterisation
An advantage of SimaPro is the flexibility of display. The previous graph provided a view on how the different life cycles have impacts as well as a breakdown on what those impacts are, the above details the causes of each type of environmental damage. Making it easier to see that minerals, land use, carcinogens and ecotoxicity are caused overwhelmingly by the materials and manufacture.
Weighting Per Impact Category
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Components Normalisation Per Impact Category
Identifying the impact of the components is possible through a number of charts through SimaPro. The above illustrates a breakdown of the different environmental impact categories and the parts that are responsible - a particular strength of this method as it allows users who are looking to reduce a specific type of impact to see the main contributor part i.e. the carafe contributes the most respiratory inorganics.
Components Single Score Per Impact Category
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Identifying The Impact Of Components The analysis clearly illustrates that the Carafe is the component with the highest impact, mostly to fossil fuels and respiratory inorganics, most likely down to the power intensive manufacture process involved in borosillicates discussed earlier. After the carafe is the body, which also has a large respiratory inorganic impact, partially due to the electroplating process used which involves both high energy input as well as the use of harsh chemicals. It is interesting to note that this process has only been used on two parts that should not come into contact with the coffee, due to the human health concerns associated with common types of chromium plating (Hexavalent Chromium Plating (Northeast Waste Management Officials Association, 2003)) which may offer a possible opening for redesign. A weakness of SimaPro is that its measurement of Pts without any comparative data does little to give the user a ‘real world’ point of reference. Meaning that the results shown are often of limited use aside from comparatively between other studies conducted within the program. SimaPro provides a diagram similar to the flow model. Line thickness illustrates the flow of environmental impacts its clear that the use phase contributes the vast majority. This diagram may serve more complex products better.
Network
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Results Comparison Comparing CES and Simapro LCA findings Energy and CO2 Footprint Summary:
CES
Overview + Life Cycle Phase Analysis Comparing the results from CES and SimaPro, both produce a similar breakdown of impact/life cycle phase with the use phase dominating followed by materials and manufacture phases. Interestingly, it can be seen that this correlation would be even more obvious if the materials and manufacture stages were combined in the CES as they are in SimaPro.
SimaPro
This result is unsurprising as in both studies the impact of the energy used to boil the water is 177 MJ over its life and it would be expected that the impact values for materials and processes may be similar across programs. CO2 Details... Phase Material Manufacture Transport Use Disposal Total (for first life) End of life potential
Identifying The Impact Of Components
Energy (MJ) 26.8 6.92 1.05 177 0.13 212 0
Energy (%) 12.6 3.3 0.5 83.6 0.1 100
CES
The top graph shows the averaged materials and manufacture, CO2 and Energy impacts of each component as a percentage of the whole produced from the CES study (based from all 4 tables). The bottom graph shows the impact of each component as a percentage of the whole (based from the Comparison Single Score Graph). This was achieved through a simple excel document. A clear correlation between the two graphs are shown there are some discrepancies; noticeably the handle made from injection moulded HIPS. The CES rates it at 7.0025% of the overall impact of the product, where SimaPro rates it 3.95%. This may be due to CES’s lower detail material selection. Whilst SimaPro the selection of the particular type of HIPS (unfilled), the CES only accounts for a generalised HIPS which includes higher impact variants that include fillers.
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SimaPro
CO2 (kg) 1.56 0.53 0.0743 11 0.00909 13.2 0
CO2 (%) 11.8 4.0 0.6 83.6 0.1 100
Tool Comparison
Comparing the CES and Simapro tools Both tools allow users to select materials, manufacture and use processes through a similar methodology of selecting from lists of options and then utilising data about the impacts of those combinations to calculate the overall estimated impact of the product. A fact that means both tools are only as good as their respective databases which may become less accurate over time with changes in manufacture and material production conditions. The main differences between the two tools stem from the level of detail and time that is required to produce results. Whilst the CES has a number of levels of complexity to choose from (Eco Design Level 3 was chosen for this project), its input process is fast and inexpensive. Allowing for multiple variations to be created in quick succession whereas SimaPro tends to require a larger time investment and each change in design requires the analysis process to be altered and recalculated in a manner that is little faster than starting a fresh study. This may be due to differences in system boundaries within each tool, the CES calculates only the energy and CO2 impacts with each process SimaPro produces a more detailed breakdown of the environmental and human health impacts by category and substance to enable a far more complete view into the causes of each impact. For example using SimaPro is became clear that the use of Borosilicate required a large fossil fuel input due to boric acid, which further research revealed was due to the specialised machinery and higher temperatures required to manufacture than conventional glass. Both types however had surprisingly small data on manufacturing processes, with ‘general metalworking’ and ‘plastic moulding’.
+ Fast, Inexpensive
- Time Consuming, Expensive
- Only 2 measured impacts
+ Measures 11 impact categories
+Separates materials and manufacture
- Combines both phases in graphs
- Graphs only for 2 overall impacts, tabular only for the rest
+ Graphical or tabular display of nearly all data and data flows.
+ Clear PDF report style output.
- Outputs exported individually as images, third party programs exist to compile them automatically. + Detailed breakdown of substances. + ‘Network’ view to see the flow of impact and energy in the products life cycle.
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human needs met what does the product do right?
The Cafetiere or French press a method of producing filter coffee in an easy manner in the home and is a central part of many peoples morning routines (Statistics Brain, 2014). Its function is one that may be considered as a luxury due to the existence of instant coffee. So what human needs are met or enabled by this product when applied to Maslow’s hierarchy of need and the design hierarchy?
Self Actualisation | Creativity Unifying the underlying levels of both design and human need hierarchies the cafetiere facilitates self actualisation mainly through its affiliation with coffee.
SELF ACTUALIZATION Creativity, Problem Solving, Authenticity, Spontaneity
Esteem | Proficiency Using perceived high value materials such as stainless steel and glass coupled with the prevailing schema of cafetieres and similar as a highly cultured, ‘coffee house’ to the user this product promotes esteem via association with this ‘cultured ritual’.
ESTEEM Self-Esteem, Confidence, Achievement SOCIAL NEEDS Friendship, Family
SAFETY AND SECURITY
PHYSICAL NEEDS (SURVIVAL)
Social Needs | Usability Of all the methods of coffee making the cafetiere thanks to its size allows for the greatest amount of social interaction - allowing up to 5 people to communally make and drink coffee together from a single product.
Air, Shelter, Water,Food, Sleep, Sex
Safety & Security Needs | Reliability Due to its direct force mechanical action with hard wearing materials the product meets security needs through its performance security over a long life span.a
Physical Needs | Functionality The product infuses the taste of coffee grounds into water to provide a popular hot beverage for many people for sustenance and in some cases - protection from cold.
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Suggested eco Improvements In what way can the human needs could be met with improved environmental performance?
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Design For Behaviour Change Serving Guidance to Reduce Wastage
Lower Impact Material Selections Replacing Borosilicate And Steel
The cafetiere holds 5.5 cups of coffee, and no guides on how much water is required. Markings informing the user about their usage and serving sizes in particular should mean less water to be boiled unnecessarily - reducing wasted energy. Strengths: Low cost, understandable measurements, effects the most pressing life cycle phase.
A small reduction per unit, over the total volume the materials can produce a cumulative effect. Both borosilicate and steel have high imbued energy. Borosilicate suffers issues with recycling and does not degrade (Recycle Now 2014) constituting 44.3% of the products mass. Replacing that with a recyclable or degradable alternative presents itself as an obvious improvement.
Weaknesses: Variations in serving sizes, may not actually reduce the water boiled.
Strengths: Biggest changes available by mass, opens up possibilities for other redesign elements Weaknesses: Danger of adverse effects on value perception.
+ Reduction Of Scale Reducing the Maximum Capacity
Parts Reduction Merge Body + Carafe
Reducing the size of the cafetiere the materials and processes are reduced. At present users may tend to fill the product to capacity will cause at least 0.5 servings (90ml) of wastage. Reducing maximum capacity to one that closer fits the serving size this wastage could also be minimised.
Replacing the carafe with a corn starch based plastic in particular opens the ability to condense two largest parts into a single part reducing weight and assembly through moulding. A single part with ribs can perform the functions of both the body and the carafe. Biopolymers: PLA, PHA, PCL.
Strengths: Reduced material / manufacture, reduced risk of overfilling, Weaknesses: Wide variations in serving size may nullify some potential benefits, ergonomic considerations in handle, possible reduction in perceived value.
Strengths: Lowering of total cost, reduction in assembly, reduction in transport weight, cheaper replacement parts. Weaknesses: Risk of lack of value perception, lowering of emotional attachment, risk of depreciation (i.e scratching), requires industrial compost settings to degrade.
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+ Parts Reduction Merge Body + Handle
Improve Thermal Characteristics Thicker or Vacuum Walls
As with merging the body and carafe, the switch of materials to a mouldable plastic also opens up the opportunity to mould in the handle as a single part also to create a unibody design.
Wasted energy from boiling water cooling over time prevents a user from getting more than one coffee from a single use. Most of this heat energy will be lost through conduction and radiation. Ergo utilising a thicker, more thermally insulating material or even a vacuum barrier as in thermal flasks may reduce risk.
Strengths: Further reduction in parts and weight, single part requiring no disassembly for disposal. Weaknesses: Lowering perceived quality of the main contact point, complex moulding required,
Strengths: Some reduction in wastage, extends use phase unit, can be used in moderation to achieve some benefits. Weaknesses: High initial cost, increased material usage, possibly a minor effect, does not account for convection.
Product Life Optimisation Paper Filters
Reduce Parts Simplify Cup Assembly
The key component of the product is the mesh filter that presses through the coffee. This assembly must be dismantled and washed individually, often this part becomes warped and worn. Paper filters of this size can be reused and 3000 of them are equal in paper to a single newspaper (Aerobie, 2014).
Currently the cup assembly consists of 1 metal cup and 1 plastic insert fixed together by a long bolt and nut. This prevents some of the water from coming into contact with the metal cup but also forms a cavity that is difficult to wash. Replacing the finish of the steel with trivalent plating that has much lower human health impacts allows the removal of the plastic insert and bolt assembly.
Strengths: Improved product performance (finer filter), easily recyclable, reduced weight, easier maintenance, less water usage during maintenance. Weaknesses: Consumable filters whilst low in initial impact may cumulatively surpass the existing steel mesh more and more the longer the product life.
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Strengths: 3 fewer parts (less material, less assembly), removes cavity to improve maintenance. Weaknesses: Removing the top bolt may cause instability of the press during its operation as it also acted to guide the straight downwards movement.
Social Change ‘Enjoy Together’
Emotionally Durable Design Fading Handle
Due to its size performs most efficiently serves more than a single user during any one use. A simple message printed on the side of the cafetiere in a subtle way could promote and encourage this kind of mode of use. Playing off of the emotional and social needs of the user and the existing social schema around coffee.
Finish that age with wear fits well with the human needs of the cafetiere. A lightly painted plastic or anodized metal handle could fade over the products life as an indicator or how much use it has gone through with the user in the same manner that anodized iPods were famed (Scott, 2011).
Strengths: Possibly reduces units required, increases perceived value - one product many users.
Strengths: Fostering an emotional attachment to the product that encourages retainment with repair and an extended product life.
Weaknesses: Marginally higher manufacture impact, very minimal change may make little difference, could detract from quality if not done tastefully.
Weaknesses: Increased manufacturing process and/or higher impact materials most likely required, wear may instead lead to premature disposal.
Layout Alteration Aeropress Configuration This layout is similar to that of an oversized syringe, pressing coffee through a paper filter directly down into a cup, greatly reducing its size and simplifies it to 4 parts. This plunger mechanism also cleans the inner tube making maintenance a simple wipe of the base of the plunger after use. Strengths: Extremely easy maintenance, no wasted water. Weaknesses: Patented design, Can only serve a single user at a time, loses much of the cultural and aesthetic appeals associated with traditional cafetieres.
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REDESIGN PROPOSAL
How can these improvements best be implemented to lower the products environmental impact?
Overview
It was established from the previous analysis’ that the main areas of opportunity for improved environmentally sensitive design for the Cafetiere identified and addressed by the following redesign elements were: The Use Phase. Any energy saving here through reduced wastage will repeat for the 780 uses. • Design for behaviour change: • •
Materials / Manufacture Phase. The Carafe And Body. The biggest contributors in this phase producing large amounts of respiratory inorganics and fossil fuels due to energy intensive processing. The Cup Assembly. The second largest subassembly, contributing a disproportionate amount of fossil fuels and carcinogens as well as increasing the difficulty in maintenance (requiring some disassembly to properly clean.
Serving Markings
As the wastage associated with the scale of the cafetiere and the difficulty translating how full it is to serving sizes by the user, the opportunity to pad print or etch serving sizes on the side of the carafe offers a low cost - high potential impact redesign opportunity.
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Reduced Scale
Through slight reductions in the size of all components around the product existing parts have been trimmed by ~10% reducing material and manufacture impacts as well as at least partially addressing the largest issue; the use phase.
Improved Cup Assembly
1. Replaced bolt with silicon bush Allows for smooth press action from a single part rather than deep plunger bolt and nut. 2. Removed nut and insert. Enables cleaning of all areas (eliminates void that exists between insert and cup) so that maintenance can be carried out without disassembly. 3. Removed some material + improved maintenance. Trimmed near 5mm from base of cup through a simple alteration in from afforded by the moulded carafe. Removes cavity between insert and cup, allowing for easier maintenance as in 2. 4. Switched plating method. From Hexavalent to trivalent for its reduction in adverse human health effects and air emissions. (Northeast Waste Management Officials Association, 2003).
Preserving Value
Drawing on research by coffee maker Aerobie (Aerobie 2010), the use of black-grey tinted clear and thick plastics preserves a the high class and value associated with coffee makers when replacing glass components.
Redesigned Carafe Body
Merging both the two main components by mass and impact was a simple logical step. Reducing the combined mass from 446.5g of steel and glass to 134g of Polylactic acid (PLA) that requires low energy manufacture and can be composted. This should reduce respiratory inorganics over the steel body.
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new inventory
Part, Material, Weight & Processes
1 CARAFE
Polylactic Acid (PLA)
134g
Injection Moulding
2 handle
High Impact Polystyrene
24g
Injection Moulding
3 handle bolt
Martensitic Stainless Steel
1.5g
Rough Machining
4 handle nut
Martensitic Stainless Steel
1.5g
Rough Machining
5 Lower Press
Martensitic Stainless Steel
21g
Punch
6 Filter Mesh
Martensitic Stainless Steel
2g
Etching
7 Press Coil
Martensitic Stainless Steel
21g
Extrusion
8 upper press
Martensitic Stainless Steel
12g
Injection Moulding
9 Metal Cup
Steel
70g
Spinning
10 Cup Nipple
Silicon (Unfilled)
1.1g
Injection Moulding
11 Press bolt
Martensitic Stainless Steel
4.5g
Rough machining
12 press stem
Martensitic Stainless Steel
20g
Extrusion
13 press ball
High Impact Polystyrene
5g
Injection Moulding
Pad Print
Welding
Feeding Into Press
Electroplating
Rough Machining
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SImapro Analysis
Full LCA of the redesign using Eco indicator 99
Overview + Life Cycle Phase Analysis Using the mass data from the solidworks model of the final redesign a long with existing data from unaltered components a second SimaPro study was conducted. Unfortunately due to the difficulty in measuring the success of designing for behaviour change (it can only be speculated how much the revised capacity and serving suggestions will actually alter the user behaviour and reduction in wastage) the use phase remains the same in this revision as to ensure results are backed up by measurable data. The most significant improvement measured by the LCA is the materials and manufacture phase as this is the most affected by the physical changes in the redesign, reducing from 0.41Pt in the original product to 0.27Pt after the changes have been implemented. A result mirrored by the final CES studies also completed that reported a reduction in materials and manufacture energy of 31.45% and CO2 of 32.35%. Using the weighted per impact category graph it can be seen that these stages also found a drop in all impacts with the exception of a 5mPt rise in land use whereas the biggest reductions were in respiratory inorganics and fossil fuels. These results demonstrate the differences between SimaPro and CES in a redesign scenario as the CES functiioned well to complete multiple iterative variations with its easy to measure output, whereas SimaPro excelled at providing a detailed view of how a redesign affects individual impacts. There is a very slight increase in the disposal phased due to ‘land use’ in municipal waste disposal. This may be due to the fact that to compost the PLA an industrial composter is required and instead SimaPro has assumed the product will instead go wholly to landfill.
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Single Score Per Impact Category
Weighted Per Impact Category
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Identifying The Impact Of Components The SimaPro components analysis reveals how these environmental improvements have been made. It should be noted that the ‘Carafe’ referred to in these graphs is the whole redesigned carafe/body element. The carafe/body is still the component with the largest impact, especially in fossil fuels and respiratory inorganics. However these level are far reduced from those of the original, with an improvement in the parts overall impact across all categories of 64.62% (195mPt body + carafe combined down to 69mPt). In respiratory inorganics in particular a reduction of 85.52% has been recorded! The reworked cup assembly has reduced the impact of the lid by 32.08% (Metal cup + insert + plunger nut + plunger bolt = 53mPt, Redesign cup nut and metal cup = 36mPt). To the extent that now the lid falls below the impact of the press assembly which was left unchanged due to its relatively low impact and high functional criticality. Reviewing these results however would direct further design towards searching for viable improvements to the press assembly (press stem, upper and lower press) in regards to mineral use as well as respiratory inorganics and organics. The silicon cup nut has a minor impact increase opposed to its previous steel construction. However this change in material is a requirement of removing both the plunger nut and the cup insert, meaning that overall this still leads to an improvement on balance.
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Components Weighting Per Impact Category
Components Single Score Per Impact Category
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Improvement & Conclusion
If the project would continue, what further improvements could be made after the redesign LCA results?
Manufacturability
The current method of manufacture require a complex multi part mould to produce the I shaped feet of the body. Such a mould requires special machinery and a large impact (although this is outside of the system boundaries for both LCAs). By reducing the width of the feet and thickening them into a solid I shape then a simpler mould will be sufficient to manufacture.
Carafe Material Selection
PET is inexpensive, widely recyclable and BPA free (important for plastics with food and drink) it is however known to leach hormone disrupters when heated. PLA was chosen to reduce risk with low energy input for manufacture (21MJ). It requires specialised composting treatment for disposal and is not BPS free (another health concern). Tritan, a copolyester without leachates , and can be widely recycled domestically could be used. It does however have a larger initial energy requirement (32MJ).
Carafe Travel Mug Kit
Optimising the products life through a small increase in material and manufacture input enables the body/carafe to be used with a sealed lid after a travel mug. In order to extend the time the coffee stays warm and drinkable, a thermal sleeve from a sustainable low impact material such as corn fibre could be included to improve user attachment as well reducing the wasted coffee through extending each use cycle.
Concluding Comments
It is clear from this project that both LCA tools are effective at their intended uses, with CES being best for snapshots of a products impact quickly during the design and development stages. SimaPro excels at providing a detailed view into the makeup of a product to identify improvement areas to define design directions but also as a measure of success at the end of a project. This exercise has demonstrated how in certain cases a products use phase may dwarf its other life cycle stages. In this case it both dominated the products impact but was also mostly controlled by the user behaviour that cannot be measured using LCA tools alone but also is dependent on the efficiency of another product - in this case a kettle.
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Appendix
Simapro Results of original and redesign for comparison
Original Single Score Per Impact Category
Original Weighting Per Impact Category
Redesign Single Score Per Impact Category
Redesign Weighted Per Impact Category
Original Components Normalisation Per Impact Category
Original Components Single Score Per Impact Category
Redesign Components Normalisation Per Impact Category
Redesign Components Single Score Per Impact Category
Brunel University School Of Engineering And Design 2014