Closed-loop life cycle management concept for lightweight solutions

Abstract

Lightweighting is the point of interest especially for automotive and aerospace industries. Wrought aluminum alloys have great potential in lightweighting. There is a need to increase post-consumer recycling and use of recycled aluminum in high-end structural components to exploit the full potential of wrought aluminum alloys. Closed-loop product life cycle management (PLM) may enable to increase the recycling of wrought aluminum alloys by providing essential information about the individual parts. Considering separate life cycle phases, products and processes may seem environmentally friendly, but it is not possible to be sure unless the entire life cycle is taken into account. LCA and LCC are scientific investigative processes which take into account entire life cycle of the products and help decision makers to evaluate between alternatives in product development. The work. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2013.