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6E - Life cycle management (MOP/204) Design for Environment – Methods and Tools. Rohde, Clemens1, Steinberg, Iris1, Szpadt, Emilia1, Jager, Johannes1, 1 TU Darmstadt - Institut WAR, Darmstadt, Germany ABSTRACT- The environmental impacts of a product are mostly determined within the product design process. In order to integrate the instrument of life cycle assessment into the design process the whole life cycle of a product has to be modeled by the designer. Since most of the potential impacts of a product can be determined by the designer in the early stages of product design, he has to be provided with tools and models to asses the environmental impacts. The Collaborative Research Center 392 ′design for environment – methods and tools′ at the Darmstadt University of Technology was formed in 1996. The aim of the research group is to develop the methods and tools to provide support for the designer. To model the life cycle of a product within the framework of a CAD system process, specific models are integrated into the design environment. The processes modeled cover all life phases of a product, such as the production of raw materials, several production processes, the phase of usage, recycling and disposal processes. With the help of these models inventory data for the whole life cycle of a product can be calculated. With the calculated inventory data the potential environmental impacts can be assessed and the environmentally relevant processes can be identified. They can be altered or replaced by other processes to minimize the environmental impacts of the whole product life cycle. Thus it is possible to continuously improve the product during the design process. Key words: product design, design for environment, impact assessment |
