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ScienceDirect Procedia CIRP 61 (2017) 17 – 21

The 24th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering

Revolutionizing Technology Adoption for the Remanufacturing Industry N.C.Y. Yeo*, H. Pepin and S.S. Yang Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre, 3 CleanTech Loop, #01/01, CleanTech Two, Singapore 637143. * Corresponding author. Tel.: (65) 69087939, E-mail address: [email protected]

Abstract Remanufacturing serves as a key enabler for sustainable manufacturing, by closing the loop of material flow and increasing the efficiency of material usage. However, high labour intensity and inconsistency in remanufactured parts’ quality remain vital issues to address in order to increase the remanufacturing uptake across different industry sectors. This paper presents the use of advanced manufacturing techniques for the development of remanufacturing applications. The on-going world-wide 4th Industrial revolution, related to the deployment of cyber-physical systems in industries, will be discussed in relation to its impact, opportunities and challenges for remanufacturing industries. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Conference on Life Cycle Engineering. Peer-review under responsibility of the cscientific of the 24th CIRP under responsibility of the scientifi committeecommittee of the 24th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering Peer-review

Keywords: Remanufacturing, Indsutry 4.0, sustainable production, smart remanufacturing process

1.

Introduction

Remanufacturing is the process of returning a product to a serviceable condition, through the steps of disassembly, cleaning, inspection, restoration and reassembly. Often a warranty is offered to provide the customer reassurance as to the quality of the remanufactured product [1]. Remanufacturing is considered one of the key enablers for sustainable manufacturing and key strategies within circular economy, by closing the loop of material flow, reducing energy use and waste disposal [2]. It is particularly attractive for industries that produce high-value and durable products, such as aerospace, Heavy-Duty Off-Road (HDOR) vehicles, automotive parts, machinery and Information and Communications Technology products. Remanufacturing is rising in the Asia-Pacific region and has been discussed in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings since 2006. Eleven economies including Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and the United States have committed not to apply measures specifically concerning used goods or remanufactured goods, and are fully participating in the pathfinder initiative to facilitate the trade of

remanufactured goods between Asia-Pacific economies [3]. The rise of remanufacturing would potentially bring greater investment opportunities, create highly skilled jobs and promote green growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Besides an open policy for trading of remanufactured goods, remanufacturing would not be sustainable without effective business models, proactive design for remanufacturing and strong technology support. Studies show that remanufacturing is still challenged by low customer recognition, lack of volume /availability of ‘cores’, low consistency of remanufactured parts quality and high labour costs, which have limited the uptake of remanufacturing across various industries [4]. To tackle some of these concerns, this paper will present the use of advanced manufacturing technologies for development of remanufacturing applications. The parallel introduction of new digital technologies, to prepare remanufacturing for the upcoming Industry 4.0 trend, is also introduced. The impact, opportunities and challenges associated with this industrial revolution will be discussed in this paper.

2212-8271 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 24th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.11.262

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2.

Advancing Manufacturing Techniques for Application in Remanufacturing Operations

Singapore has developed significant industrial sectors related to Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) within high value added industries such as aerospace, marine and oil & gas. Over the years, experience in remanufacturing has been gathered, which provides a fertile ground for bridging technological gaps in remanufacturing. To bring remanufacturing into large scale, transforming best-in-class competencies, capabilities and innovations into high value added customer solutions for companies in the remanufacturing and manufacturing industries become one of the key strategies. Examples of the technology solutions that could be utilized for remanufacturing operations are illustrated as follows:

2.1 Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) Laser metal deposition is the process of using a laser beam to melt metal filler wire or powder and form a deposit fusionbonded on a metallic substrate with controlled heat input. A wide-range of materials including titanium, nickel, cobalt and steel alloys can be deposited onto a substrate to create a brand new feature, to restore worn surfaces or to apply material to clad a specific area of a component. The equipment is computerized, thus all movements and parameters are numerically controlled, to ensure the precision and accuracy of the deposition process. The technique lends itself extremely well to applications within the aerospace, machinery, marine and oil & gas sectors. One prominent application is to employ LMD for repairing high-pressure compressor blades in aircraft engines. Employing the LMD process opens new technological opportunities for repairing components which were considered non-repairable by conventional high heat input methods and could achieve up to 50-70% cost saving compared to the cost of a new component. Novel technology developments include the combination of LMD with conventional machining processes in the same machine, creating a hybrid additive-subtractive process which allows material to be added and removed in a single set up, leading to greater flexibility and savings in terms of time and cost [5].

2.2 Robotic High Pressure Cold Spray (HPCS) Conventional thermal spray processes have been used for many years for the restoration of surfaces on worn components. However, the use of such processes was limited due to the inherent high heat input, which introduced residual stress in the coatings and limiting the thicknesses that can be attained. Cold spray is a high kinetic energy coating processes which addresses the issue of high heat input [6]. During the cold spray process, powder particles, typically in the size range of 10 to 50 μm, were accelerated to very high velocities (200 to 1000 m/s) by a supersonic compressed gas jet at temperatures well below their melting point. Upon impact with the substrate, the particles deformed, creating an adiabatic shear instability bonded coating. As the particles remain in the solid state and are relatively cold, they impart little oxidation to the substrate material. Meanwhile, low temperature also resulted in compressive residual stress, low porosity and little thermal degradation of the coating and substrate materials, which are all desirable characteristics that cannot be achieved using thermal coating processes. Recent development looked at repair and manufacturing applications using a robotized cold spray cell equipped with a 6 Axis Robot and Turn-tilt table, to address complex part repair requirements, such as cast iron cylinder heads or aluminium mould tools repair [7].

Figure 2: Cold spray with 6 Axis robot and turn-tilt table [7]

Figure 1: LMD for blade tip repair.


2.3 Automated Adaptive Machining for Parts Repair Many remanufacturing scenarios, especially for aerospace components, have part specifications comparable to new parts. Repairing such parts used to require manual repair techniques to be adaptively adjusted to component wear by operators performing the repair processes. To automate the process and assure the form accuracy for each remanufactured component, automated adaptive machining techniques have been investigated and developed. The parts first need to be defined in 3D, using various three-dimensional scanning methods such as laser triangulation, structured light, time of flight laser scanner, etc. The captured digital model was compared with the original design data to determine the geometry difference required for restoration. Finally, the tool-path was generated using a Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software, then sent to a CNC machine to carry out the machining process required to obtain a part comparable to the original specification. Adaptive machining has shown advantages in reducing the reliance on human labour and skills, while repairing components with greater accuracy and seamless information flow across the processes. Examples of applications carried out include repairing of aerospace vanes and blades of aero engines.

Figure 3: Automated adaptive machining for parts repair

2.4 Design for remanufacturing Design for manufacturing is already a widely used concept in various engineering disciplines, such as design for assembly, design for inspection etc. It allows potential challenges to be addressed and circumvented in the early design phase, which is the least expensive stage to address these issues. Understanding that many of the barriers experienced at the remanufacturing stage are linked back to the initial design stage [8], expert system has been developed to assist the OEM’s decision makers during the design of their product for remanufacturing. The expert system could validate a potential business opportunity for remanufacturing and help to decide whether remanufacturing should be included in the company product support portfolio. On the other hand, it could also assist in increasing revenue recovered through the remanufacturing process, by applying various design techniques such as material selection, coating selection, modularity design etc., as illustrated in Figure 4. Though the remanufacturing industry is currently still in its early development stage and was faced with many challenges, this situation will change eventually as companies start to realize the business benefits of remanufacturing, including the impact of early design decision on remanufacturing efficiency.

Figure 4: Expert system for design for remanufacturing

3.

Introducing Digital Technology for Remanufacturing Operations

Besides focusing on transforming best-in-class capabilities into high value added customer solutions for remanufacturing, the introduction of digital technology, especially the trend of “Factory of the Future” for advanced manufacturing also sheds light on remanufacturing development. Factory of the Future, is part of Industry 4.0 in Europe, refers to the fourth stage of industrialization, aiming for a high level of automation in manufacturing industry through ubiquitous Information and Communication Technology (ICT). As an outcome, boundaries between real environment and the virtual world become increasingly blurred, which is also described as cyber-physical production system (CPPS). In a CPPS environment, electronic and mechanical components are linked with each other, through sensors and networks to provide a smart platform for data flow and data analytics [9]. To support the adoption of technologies related to Industry 4.0 in Singapore, a public-private partnership program, called the “Factory of the Future” has been initiated. The aim is to develop a laboratory demonstrating model manufacturing lines through collaboration with industry players (end users and technology providers) based on real applications in manufacturing and remanufacturing areas. In this laboratory, the latest disruptive technologies, such as 3D printing, robotics, simulation, autonomous vehicle technology will be integrated through the Internet of Things and Data Analytics to demonstrate the potential boost to manufacturing and remanufacturing productivity, as seen in Figure 5. The Factory of Future lab will focus on three main areas: x Intelligent System and Connectivity is essentially the core of Factory of the Future. It aims at building intelligence systems into manufacturing processes through real time machine connectivity, which is enabled through using new additive technologies like advanced robotics, manufacturing and augmented reality operation. Machines will also identify incoming parts or assembly information by scanning an ID code scribed or tied to the components, and adapt the manufacturing /remanufacturing operations through self-

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Figure 5: Factory of the future platform

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optimization and smart fixturing capabilities. Further, advanced manufacturing operation management will be utilized to provide data analytics with performance monitoring and to optimize yield and productivity. x

Virtual Manufacturing is the enabler of the next generation of manufacturing paradigms. A virtual factory system is built “alongside” a physical production line, covering the major systems of the factory line and effectively providing a representative digital twin of the actual processes real-time. This digital twin supports advanced decision making processes as well as enabling management of product knowledge throughout the life cycle from conceptual design stage, manufacturing stage till product End-ofLife.

x

End to End Solution focuses on the horizontal integration of global supply chain management, including new business and cooperation models. It aims to provide a real-time optimized global network, which offers a high level of flexibility and transparency. From inbound logistics through warehousing, production, marketing and sales to outbound logistics and aftermarket service, product history will be logged in the cyber-physical production system (CPPS) and become traceable at any time. This way, manufacturers or retailers would have more effective management of their distributed manufacturing assets and order fulfilment, while monitoring their product performance to forecast core return for their remanufacturing operations.

4.

Opportunities and Challenges

Remanufacturing activities have a greater chance for success in industrial sectors in which: x x x x

Products are durable and have high value The technology cycle is substantially longer than the product’s useful life cycle Restoration and repair technologies are available and effective Products have potential to be leased or delivered as a service rather than as hardware.

The factors mentioned above are the main reasons why 60% of remanufacturing industries, in terms of production value, were from aerospace, automotive and HDOR vehicle sectors. Bottlenecks to remanufacturing were experienced in different forms, varying from geographic location, remanufacturing sector, size of the individual remanufacturers and nature of business. Over the years, several remanufacturing R&D centres have been established all over the world, aiming to address various challenges faced by remanufacturing industries. They have focused on providing advanced and

customized services in terms of service engineering and remanufacturing solutions, product life-cycle management, resource-efficient production, factory planning and logistics for remanufacturing industries in the United States, Europe and Asia. Besides, introducing digital technologies to prepare remanufacturing for the upcoming Industry 4.0 trend is also brought into focus. It aims to address the issues of shortage of skilled labour, low productivity and low value add, which are focusing increasingly in remanufacturing industries in Singapore, as well as South East Asia. In order to realize the technology revolution for remanufacturing, there are still a number of challenges that need to be addressed, including the high cost of capital equipment, variability of the repair work, long OEM approving cycle etc. It is believed that the outcome of this revolution will eventually benefit regional remanufacturing industries, including those in the aerospace, marine and oil and gas sectors, through increasing the quality and consistency of repaired parts, reducing the turnaround time and improving the companies’ profitability and competiveness in the global market.

References [1] ERN. Remanufacturing Market Study. From https://www.remanufacturing.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/study.pdf; 2015. [2] Nasr N, Thurston M. Remanufacturing: A key enabler to sustainable product systems. Procedia of 13th CIRP International Conference on LifeCycle Engineering; 2006.p.15-18. [3] USAID. Remanufacturing in Malaysia - An Assessment of the Current and Future Remanufacturing Industry. From http://www.ncapec.org/docs/USAID%20Study%20on%20Malaysian%20 Remanufacturing.pdf; 2015. [4] APSRG & APMG. Triple Win - The Social, Economic and Environmental case for Remanufacturing. From http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/apsrg/sites/site_apsrg/files/triple_win_th e_social_economic_and_environmental_case_for_remanufacturing.pdf; 2014. [5] Flynn J M, Shokrani A, Newman S T, et al. Hybrid additive and subtractive machine tools–Research and industrial developments. International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture; 2016, p.79-101. [6] Moridi A, Hassani-Gangaraj S M, Guagliano M, et al. Cold spray coating: review of material systems and future perspectives. Surface Engineering; 2014, Vol.30, No.6, pp.369-395. [7] Repair-Restoration, Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre. From https://www.a-star.edu.sg/artc/Technology-Themes/RepairRestoration.aspx; 2016. [8] Yang SS, Ong S K, Nee A Y C. Design for Remanufacturing-A FuzzyQFD Approach. Re-engineering Manufacturing for Sustainability; 2013. p.655-661. [9] Deloitte. Industry 4.0 challenges and solutions for the digital transformation and use of exponential technologies. From http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ch/Documents/manufactu ring/ch-en-manufacturing-industry-4-0-24102014.pdf; 2014.

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