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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2018) | Viewed by 73123

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Denni Kurniawan

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Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Miri 98009, Malaysia
Interests: manufacturing processes; biomaterials; composites; mechanical properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Abdul-Ghani Olabi

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates
2. Mechanical Engineering and Design, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
Interests: renewable energy; energy storage systems, sustainability; CAD and design; smart materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Hitoshi Takagi

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Guest Editor

Graduate School of Technology, Industrial and Social Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan
Interests: composite materials; green composites; nanocomposites; cellulose nanofiber

Special Issue Information

This Special Issue covers all aspects of sustainability in materials engineering and technology, in manufacturing engineering and technology, as well as in related, multidisciplinary fields. Any type of article aligned with the journal (original research, case study, technical report, short communication, and reviews), within the scope of sustainability in materials and manufacturing is welcome for this Special Issue. Additionally included are selected papers from the 3^rd International Materials, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering Conference (MIMEC2017) in Miri, Malaysia (www.mimec.me) and the 2^nd International Conference on Materials and Manufacturing Engineering and Technology (CoMMET 2018) in Bali, Indonesia (www.commet.me). Please consider contributing to this Special Issue. Thank you for your consideration.

Dr. Denni Kurniawan
Prof. Dr. Abdul-Ghani Olabi
Prof. Dr. Hitoshi Takagi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Sustainable materials
Sustainable manufacturing
Sustainability in manufacturing
Sustainability in industrial and system engineering

Published Papers (13 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 4074 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Sustainability Implications of the Incorporation of a Biogas Trapping System into a Conventional Crude Palm Oil Supply Chain

by Chye Ing Lim and Wahidul K. Biswas

Sustainability 2019, 11(3), 792; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030792 - 02 Feb 2019

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5379

Abstract

This paper presents the sustainability implications of installing biogas trapping systems in palm oil mills of a crude palm oil production supply chains in Malaysia. The study evaluates the impact of this mitigation strategy on the existing supply chains published by Lim and Biswas. The experience of a local palm oil mill installed with the KUBOTA biogas trapping system was incorporated into a typical 60 metric tonne per hour palm oil mill for effluent treatment. This allowed us to assess the changes in sustainability performance of the whole crude palm oil supply chain using the Palm Oil Sustainability Assessment (POSA) framework. Installing the biogas trapping system increased waste recycling and reuse percentage of the mill from 81.81% to 99.99% and the energy ratio (energy output/fossil fuel and biomass energy input) from 2.45 to 2.56; and reduced the Greenhouse Gas emission of the supply chain from 0.814 tonne CO₂eq to 0.196 tonne CO₂eq per tonne of Crude Palm Oil. This system could also potentially increase the mill’s annual revenue by 2.3%, while sacrificing the sustainability performance of other economic indicators (i.e., a further 3% negative deviation of actual growth rate from sustainable growth rate). Overall, sustainability score of the supply chain improved from 3.47/5 to 3.59/5 on the 5-level-Likert-scale due to environmental improvement strategy consideration. Finally, this paper shows that the POSA framework is capable of capturing changes in the sustainability performance of triple bottom line indicators associated with the use or incorporation of any improvement strategy in the crude palm oil supply chain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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15 pages, 1210 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identifying Core Parts in Complex Mechanical Product for Change Management and Sustainable Design

by Na Zhang, Yu Yang, Jianxin Wang, Baodong Li and Jiafu Su

Sustainability 2018, 10(12), 4480; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124480 - 28 Nov 2018

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2468

Abstract

Changes in customer needs are unavoidable during the design process of complex mechanical products, and may bring severely negative impacts on product design, such as extra costs and delays. One of the effective ways to prevent and reduce these negative impacts is to evaluate and manage the core parts of the product. Therefore, in this paper, a modified Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidential approach is proposed for identifying the core parts. Firstly, an undirected weighted network model is constructed to systematically describe the product structure. Secondly, a modified D-S evidential approach is proposed to systematically and scientifically evaluate the core parts, which takes into account the degree of the nodes, the weights of the nodes, the positions of the nodes, and the global information of the network. Finally, the evaluation of the core parts of a wind turbine is carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in the paper. The results show that the modified D-S evidential approach achieves better performance regarding the evaluation of core parts than the node degree centrality measure, node betweenness centrality measure, and node closeness centrality measure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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21 pages, 2559 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Learning to Dispatch Operations with Intentional Delay for Re-Entrant Multiple-Chip Product Assembly Lines

by Jaeseok Huh, Inbeom Park, Seongmin Lim, Bohyung Paeng, Jonghun Park and Kwanho Kim

Sustainability 2018, 10(11), 4123; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114123 - 09 Nov 2018

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3374

Abstract

As the demand for small devices with embedded flash memory increases, semiconductor manufacturers have been recently focusing on producing high-capacity multiple-chip products (MCPs). Due to the frequently re-entrant lots between the die attach (DA) and wire bonding (WB) assembly stages in MCP production, increased flow time and decreased resource utilization are unavoidable. In this paper, we propose a dispatcher based on artificial neural networks, which minimizes the flow time while maintaining high utilization of resources at the same time through exploiting the possible intentional delays on DA stage. Specifically, the proposed dispatcher learns the assignment preferences between available lots and DA resources based on assembly line data generated by using a simulator, then the proposed dispatcher performs lot dispatching decisions by considering the intentional delays. The numerical experiments were performed under various configurations of the MCP assembly lines, and the results show that the proposed dispatcher outperformed the existing methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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17 pages, 3420 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Biocement Fabrication and Design Application for a Sustainable Urban Area

by Chungmin Lee, Hyesun Lee and Ok Bin Kim

Sustainability 2018, 10(11), 4079; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114079 - 07 Nov 2018

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 13125

Abstract

Recently, designers have begun to pursue sustainability through the fabrication of materials from living organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and algae in order to address environmental issues. Based on the potential of materials from living organisms, this study has explored a sustainable design application using biocement formed thorough microbially-induced calcite precipitation (MICP), which produces minerals by bacterial metabolic activity. Since most of the studies on MICP thus far have focused on limited fields such as engineering, biotechnology, and geo-technology, this study has focused more on improving the application of biocement in design. We optimized MICP conditions using two parameters (i.e., concentration of urea-CaCl₂ and bacterial cell density) through water percolation testing, compressive strength testing, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Then, based on the optimized conditions, material compatibility testing and scalability testing were performed, and design application research was conducted as well. As a result, biocement has been identified as a potential sustainable design material, based on its 40% compressive strength compared to conventional concrete, improved material finish, aesthetic aspects, and environmental impact. This paper contributes to the development of biocement applications in the environmental design field through multidisciplinary research ranging from biological experiments to design applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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11 pages, 2549 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Different Pre-Treatments of Concrete Surface on the Bond Strength of Geopolymer-Type Coating Layer

by Alena Sicakova

Sustainability 2018, 10(11), 4053; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114053 - 05 Nov 2018

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2479

Abstract

The treatment of concrete surface using more durable material is one way to slow down the damage process of material, which can negatively affect durability of construction. This paper is aimed at testing the geopolymer-type coating materials of different composition while placing emphasis on various techniques of surface pre-treatments of concrete to which they were applied. The main composition variables were as follows: the fly ash fineness (original, ground) and the addition of washing-aggregate sludge. Four compositions were tested and compared with the composition based on cement binder. The cement mixture was prepared using the same fillers. The following techniques of surface pre-treatment of concrete were applied: brushing, pressure washing, and pressure washing followed by penetration, together with non-treated surface being used for comparison. The effect of the surface treatment technique was tested through the adhesion strength, which was executed at 2, 7, 28, and 120 days after application of the coating. The influence of the composition of geopolymer coating material was also discussed. Geopolymer-based mixtures achieved better adhesive strength than the cement-based mixture, regardless of surface treatment technique. The addition of sludge microfiller seems to be beneficial in improving the adhesive strength of geopolymer-type coating material. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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15 pages, 2110 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Research Trend of Smart Factory with Topic Modeling

by Hyun-Lim Yang, Tai-Woo Chang and Yerim Choi

Sustainability 2018, 10(8), 2779; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082779 - 06 Aug 2018

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 5404

Abstract

Growing competition among manufacturing businesses and the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has meant that many countries are conducting various research projects to understand how to introduce and populate smart factories. Smart factories are expected to provide a way of solving the manufacturing industries’ complex problems, to take a role in breakthroughs in factories and to carry on a sustainable business. Smart factories are currently in the introduction stage, so we should follow up on the majorities and check their tendencies. However, smart-factory research is an interdisciplinary field that should be studied by researchers with diverse backgrounds in various domains. Thus, studying the past and present overall research trends of smart factory studies is required for their successful introduction and sustainable research. In this study, we explored the research trends of smart factories in both international and specifically Korean research, as an example of a nation case, to determine the major research directions. We determined trends using latent semantic analysis, which is a known topic-modeling technique, and analyzed the trends with regression-based methods. As a result, we could read the clear trends by analyzing existing studies related to smart factories. In addition, it is possible to compare research trends in Korea and international research trends for the commonly appeared topics, such as ‘ICT’ (Information and Communications Technology) and ‘R&D (Research and Development)/Technology Innovation’. We expect that the quantitative analysis results and suggestions presented in this study can be used to formulate strategies for the future diffusion of smart factories. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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24 pages, 1363 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of the Planning from the Kanban System on the Company’s Operating Benefits

by María Mojarro-Magaña, Jesús Everardo Olguín-Tiznado, Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz, Claudia Camargo-Wilson, Juan Andrés López-Barreras and Rubén Jesús Pérez-López

Sustainability 2018, 10(7), 2506; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072506 - 17 Jul 2018

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 7688

Abstract

This article reports a model regarding the structural equations of the impact of the planning phase and the benefits acquired in the implementation of the kanban system. It begins with a literature review of the activities of the planning phase, based on which a questionnaire was developed and applied in manufacturing companies in the state of Baja California, in the municipalities of Ensenada, Tijuana, Tecate, and Mexicali. The responses were obtained from 118 questionnaires and were validated by the Cronbach’s alpha index for internal validity and the R-squared index for predictive validity. A model of the structural equations of the planning phase was developed and validated through three latent variables, namely, human resources, preliminary analysis, and kanban integration, which correspond to 22 activities and one variable that integrate 11 operational benefits. The model shows six hypotheses to verify the causal relationships between these variables. Partial least-squares algorithms are used to validate the hypothesis, and the results indicate that the preliminary analysis is the basis for the success of the implementation of the kanban in the planning stage, through the application of activities, such as 5’s, value stream mapping (VSM), material handling, flow diagram, and visual aids with a sustainable approach, according to the efficient flow of materials and minimum downtime. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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9 pages, 1711 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Process and Energy Analysis of Pelleting Agricultural and Woody Biomass Blends

by Noorfidza Yub Harun, Ashak Mahmud Parvez and Muhammad T. Afzal

Sustainability 2018, 10(6), 1770; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061770 - 29 May 2018

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 3313

Abstract

Unprocessed biomass has low energy density and high transportation cost. The energy generated through biomass can be enhanced by the pelletizing technique. In order to evaluate the energy requirement for the pelletizing of agricultural biomass, three different particle sizes (150–300, 300–425, and 425–600 µm) of reed canary grass (RCG), timothy hay (TH), and switchgrass (SW) were selected in the present work. Furthermore, two woody biomasses (spruce and pine) were also considered under similar experimental conditions for comparison purposes. An Instron machine attached to an in-house built pelletizer unit was employed to produce a single pellet. The energy demand for compacting ground biomass (spruce) with a particle size of 150 µm was lower (2.07 kJ) than those required for particle sizes of 300 µm (2.24 kJ) and 425 µm (2.43 kJ). The energy required for compacting ground reed canary grass, timothy hay, and switchgrass was lower (1.61, 1.97, and 1.68 kJ, respectively) than that required for spruce (2.36 kJ) and pine (2.35 kJ), evaluated at a 159-MPa load and at temperature of about 80 °C. The energy demand for blended biomass was around 2 kJ with the pellet quality approaching that of the pellets made from woody biomass. Overall, blending helped to improve the quality of pellets and lower the compaction energy requirements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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21 pages, 29670 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Achieving Sustainability of Traditional Wooden Houses in Indonesia by Utilization of Cost-Efficient Waste-Wood Composite

by Meng-Ting Tsai and Anthony Sugiharto Wonodihardjo

Sustainability 2018, 10(6), 1718; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061718 - 24 May 2018

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 6166

Abstract

Although Indonesians have for many years used wood to build traditional houses, currently it is difficult to find new traditional houses made from wood. Since wood is too expensive for local people, concrete becomes the major construction material instead. However, wood is considered a sustainable material that is eco-friendly, recyclable, and has less of an environmental impact than concrete. In this study, an innovative and cost efficient waste-wood composite structure was proposed with the intention of fulfilling local demand for the construction of traditional wooden houses, as well as supplying a sustainable and cost-efficient wooden product in the construction sector. Four small pieces of waste wood connected with steel nails or self-tapping screws were assembled into a rectangular waste-wood composite, serving as secondary beam, column, or brace. These waste-wood composites are considered recyclable and low-cost, and provide an alternative solution for local people that achieves an affordable and sustainable construction system. The assembled wood components were tested under single shear in order to clarify the structural performance of connection and the failure modes. The comparison of the experimental results and predicted results showed that the predicted strength is considered in a conservative manner for further application. In addition, the cost estimation and comparison between a solid wood structure and the waste-wood composite structure indicated that the price of the waste-wood composite structure is potentially competitive and cost-efficient for the local people, which was optimistic for future development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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14 pages, 1725 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Multi-Response Optimization of Thrust Forces, Torques, and the Power of Tapping Operations by Cooling Air in Reinforced and Unreinforced Polyamide PA66

by Rosario Domingo, Beatriz De Agustina and Marta M. Marín

Sustainability 2018, 10(3), 889; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030889 - 20 Mar 2018

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4025

Abstract

The use of cooling air during machining is an environmentally conscious procedure, and its applicability to different processes is a research priority. We studied tapping operations, an important operation in the assembly process, using cooling air with unreinforced polyamide (PA66) and polyamide reinforced with glass fiber (PA66-GF30). These materials are widely used in industry, but their behavior with respect to tapping has not been studied. We analyze the outcomes regarding the thrust force, torque, and power at cutting speeds between 15 and 60 m/min. The experimental tests were executed using cooling air at 22 °C, 2 °C, and −18 °C in dry conditions. The M12 × 1.75 mm taps were high-speed steel, with cobalt as the base material and coatings of TiN and AlCrN. To identify the more influential factors, an analysis of variance was performed, along with multi-response optimization to identify the desirability values. This optimization shows that the optimum for PA66can be found in environments close to 3 °C, while the optimum for PA66-GF30 is found at the minimal temperature studied (−18 °C). Thus, cooling air can be considered an adequate procedure for tapping operations, to increase the sustainability of the manufacturing processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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21 pages, 4533 KiB

Open AccessArticle

ASPIE: A Framework for Active Sensing and Processing of Complex Events in the Internet of Manufacturing Things

by Shaobo Li, Weixing Chen, Jie Hu and Jianjun Hu

Sustainability 2018, 10(3), 692; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030692 - 04 Mar 2018

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4700

Abstract

Rapid perception and processing of critical monitoring events are essential to ensure healthy operation of Internet of Manufacturing Things (IoMT)-based manufacturing processes. In this paper, we proposed a framework (active sensing and processing architecture (ASPIE)) for active sensing and processing of critical events in IoMT-based manufacturing based on the characteristics of IoMT architecture as well as its perception model. A relation model of complex events in manufacturing processes, together with related operators and unified XML-based semantic definitions, are developed to effectively process the complex event big data. A template based processing method for complex events is further introduced to conduct complex event matching using the Apriori frequent item mining algorithm. To evaluate the proposed models and methods, we developed a software platform based on ASPIE for a local chili sauce manufacturing company, which demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods for active perception and processing of complex events in IoMT-based manufacturing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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10111 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Open Source-Based Real-Time Data Processing Architecture Framework for Manufacturing Sustainability

by Muhammad Syafrudin, Norma Latif Fitriyani, Donglai Li, Ganjar Alfian, Jongtae Rhee and Yong-Shin Kang

Sustainability 2017, 9(11), 2139; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9112139 - 20 Nov 2017

Cited by 42 | Viewed by 8058

Abstract

Currently, the manufacturing industry is experiencing a data-driven revolution. There are multiple processes in the manufacturing industry and will eventually generate a large amount of data. Collecting, analyzing and storing a large amount of data are one of key elements of the smart manufacturing industry. To ensure that all processes within the manufacturing industry are functioning smoothly, the big data processing is needed. Thus, in this study an open source-based real-time data processing (OSRDP) architecture framework was proposed. OSRDP architecture framework consists of several open sources technologies, including Apache Kafka, Apache Storm and NoSQL MongoDB that are effective and cost efficient for real-time data processing. Several experiments and impact analysis for manufacturing sustainability are provided. The results showed that the proposed system is capable of processing a massive sensor data efficiently when the number of sensors data and devices increases. In addition, the data mining based on Random Forest is presented to predict the quality of products given the sensor data as the input. The Random Forest successfully classifies the defect and non-defect products, and generates high accuracy compared to other data mining algorithms. This study is expected to support the management in their decision-making for product quality inspection and support manufacturing sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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3063 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Optimal Decision Combination in Semiconductor Manufacturing

by Sungwook Yoon, Jihyun Kim and Sukjae Jeong

Sustainability 2017, 9(10), 1788; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9101788 - 02 Oct 2017

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4560 | Retraction

Abstract

Wafer fabrication is a capital-intensive and highly complex manufacturing process. In a wafer fabrication facility (fab), wafers are grouped as a lot to go through repeated sequences of operations to build circuitry. Lot scheduling is an important task for manufacturers in order to improve production efficiency and satisfy customers’ demands of on-time delivery. Cycle time and average work-in-process reduction while meeting customers’ requirements play an important role in improving the competitiveness and sustainability of a semiconductor manufacturer. In this research, we propose the optimal combination rules for lot scheduling problems in wafer fabs, focusing on three complex areas of decision making: lot release control, batch sizing, and dispatching lots to enhance competitiveness and sustainability of a semiconductor facility. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing)

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