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LCA is an important theme for manufacturers
Life cycle assessment, LCA, which evaluates environmental impact in
all processes from material to production and scrapping, is an important
theme for every manufacturer to address. We show our efforts to reduce
environmental impact by taking an air conditioner as an example.
There was not much effort to cut environmental harm coming from a
large air conditioner buried in a ceiling and to make it lighter.
TG reexamined what material to choose, which is the process before
designing, and shifted the material from ABS resin to PP (polypropylene)
resin. |
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Aiming at 50% cut by shifting to PP resin totally
There is a big difference in environmental impact between the two
materials. The shift reduced electricity consumption by 37% when making
pellets from crude oil. The difference is also observed in their molding
temperatures, ABS resin, 230°c while PP resin, 200°c.
The molding cycle of PP resin is shorter than that of ABS resin, which
saves a lot of electricity in production. But PP resin is more difficult
to treat than ABS resin. Therefore TG’s technological strength
accumulated in high polymer auto part manufacturing is fully demonstrated
in its processing.
Another advantage PP resin has is its better recyclability. We shifted
the material for sheet metal parts to PP resin and promoted modularizing
parts and reducing the number of parts and screws. These efforts cut
assembly time in half and energy consumption to 70%. Our current target
is a 50% reduction. TG will continue to aggressively promote
LCA related efforts in material selection, designing, and production. |
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