An Investigation On Sustainable Design Index Based On Modular Design Of Machine Tools

The modern manufacturing market demand is changing rapidly and frequently, andthe manufacturing industry is facing a serious of problems which are increasingly severesuch as environment, resources, ecology. The sustainable design of machine tools is apressing need. The modular design of machine tools can shorten design cycle and copewith the rapidly changing market demand effectively， and it’s one of enablingsustainable design methods. In order to carry out sustainable design of machine toolsbetter, building a practical and effective analysis model to evaluate the sustainabledesign of modern machine tools and studying its implementation methods is a pressingneed. Therefore, the sustainable design evaluating model of modern machine tools isstudied in the paper, on the basis of machine tools modular designThe modular design of machine tools is carried out based on axiomatic design. Themachine tool is divided into the basic structure units through function-structure zigzagmapping decomposition. The required modules are formed by basic structure unitsclustering, after the function analysis. The modularity of machine tools is evaluatedconsidering in functional, structural and physical interactivities, at both module andproduct levels. The complexity of machine tools is evaluated considering inmanufacturing and assembling, on the basis of information entropy.The concept of sustainable design index is proposed to evaluate the sustainabledesign of machine tools both qualitatively and quantitatively. In order to get SDIcalculation model，seven indicators (environment, energy, cost, safety, modularity,complexity and lightweight) for the machine tools sustainability are analyzed andcalculated against the four attributes of sustainability(nature, economy, society andscience); Then the weight of each indicator is calculated with both analytic hierarchyprocess and entropy weight coefficient method.The visible program of SDI calculation model is developed and implemented withMATLAB GUIDE module. The program includes three modules of system login,indicators calculating and SDI calculating, with the error data detection function. Thesustainable design indexes of design exemplars A and B on typical horizontalsingle-head milling machine are calculated in order to evaluate their sustainability. Thesustainability of exemplar B is better than exemplar A, as the results of exemplar A andB are0.49and0.52respectively.