Special Issue on “Low Carbon Design and Manufacturing Process”

1. Introduction

The design and manufacturing process account for approximately 60–80% of a product’s lifecycle carbon emissions, making them critical junctures for achieving low-carbon transformation across multiple industrial sectors [1]. However, traditional manufacturing industries typically have high energy consumption, severe pollution, and high carbon emissions [2]. Moreover, as resource and environmental pressures continue to grow, the low-carbon economy has become a core issue in the sustainable development strategies of countries around the world. Design and manufacturing are important stages in a product life cycle, largely determining carbon emissions across the entire supply chain [3,4]. Therefore, advancing low-carbon design and manufacturing is not only crucial for mitigating climate change and achieving carbon neutrality, but also for driving the manufacturing industry’s green transition and enhancing corporate competitiveness [5].

Low carbon design emphasizes the comprehensive consideration of cost, quality, materials, and functionality in life cycle planning [6]. Meanwhile, for reducing carbon emissions throughout the product life cycle, low-carbon design optimizes the relevant elements in the design, manufacturing, storage, transportation, distribution, use, recycling, and reuse processes of the product [7]. Product concept, structure, and material selection aim to minimize the carbon footprint, with key reduction nodes identified via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) [8]. Meanwhile, low-carbon manufacturing focuses on process optimization, energy efficiency, cleaner technologies, and renewable energy to cut emissions during production [9]. The synergistic promotion of the two helps build a green value chain from cradle to grave and promotes the development of a circular economy model.

The concept of “Low Carbon Design and Manufacturing Process” should be strictly adhered to in any industry involving product design and manufacturing processes, especially those with significant environmental impacts or potential for reducing carbon emissions. “Low-Carbon Design and Manufacturing Processes” aims to promote a win-win situation for both environmental protection and economic development, meeting the needs of modern society and effectively addressing the challenges posed by climate change. The concept emphasizes a reduction in energy use through improved design and manufacturing processes, thereby reducing carbon emissions from energy consumption.

The Special Issue, “Low Carbon Design and Manufacturing Process“, aims to explore scientific models, methods, and technologies that are both theoretically profound and of practical value to promote the effective implementation of low-carbon design and manufacturing. The core of the research focuses on the entire life cycle process of low-carbon products and manufacturing systems. It particularly emphasizes the crucial role of information technology in modeling, analysis, control, and optimization, and will also cover a series of related extension topics. The specific research directions covered include, but are not limited to the following:

(1)

Design strategies and methods for low-carbon products;

(2)

Low-carbon technologies and applications in the manufacturing process;

(3)

Planning and optimization of low-carbon process routes;

(4)

Low-carbon scheduling mechanisms at the workshop level;

(5)

Low-carbon design concepts in the remanufacturing process;

(6)

Green optimization methods for remanufacturing process paths;

(7)

Carbon emission reduction strategies in the logistics system;

(8)

Low-carbon management and operation in the reverse supply chain.

A total of 10 papers have been published in this Special Issue, all of which have been rigorously reviewed. The submissions are listed below.

The above 10 articles cover three different directions: advanced manufacturing technology and process innovation, remanufacturing systems and assessment methods, and low carbon assessment and optimization models.

2. Advanced Manufacturing Technology and Process Innovation

Advanced manufacturing is the process of continuous change in manufacturing in terms of technologies, processes, skills, and strategies to meet the future needs of society as wealth grows and population increases [8]. To meet evolving societal demands, the manufacturing sector must drive continuous innovation in advanced materials, production processes, and system technologies to deliver cost-efficient, rapid-response, flexible, high-quality, and sustainable manufacturing solutions [10]. Some of the studies in this Special Issue provide examples of advanced manufacturing technologies. For example, in the first study, Quartz wafers, as an ideal fabrication material for sensors and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), are traditionally processed in a costly and inefficient manner. Therefore, contribution one proposes a method using ultrasonic vibration-assisted electrochemical discharge machining and micro-electrode arrays to solve the lack of precision and fragmentation problems caused by insulating gas film instability in the process of micro-hole array machining of quartz wafers. Among them, the array electrodes can increase the efficiency of micro-hole machining by several times, while the ultrasonic vibration can promote the renewal of electrolytes in the micro-holes. The experimental results show that this machining method can effectively improve processing ability and reduce the occurrence of exit fragmentation, thus obtaining an entrance and exit array micro-hole surface morphology with a target dimension accuracy, providing a new method for quartz wafer micro-hole machining. Since the electrochemical discharge processing technology can effectively deal with non-conductive materials, contribution two takes sapphire as the research object and observes the film thickness and formation process of the gas film in the process of electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) in real time through high-speed photographic technology, as well as the bubble phenomenon of the processing gap. Through experiments, it experimentally explores the effect of the parameters of the liquid level, the working voltage, the rotational speed, and the pulse factor on the processing quality. The study finds that the proper process conditions can significantly improve the machining capability and reduce the lateral discharge, which can lead to a more accurate control of the hole depth. In addition, the study also discusses the variation in current characteristics under different liquid levels and its influence on processing efficiency, which provides a scientific basis and technical guidance for further optimization of ECDM processing of sapphires. In contribution three, a complex molding process for replicating highly variable microstructured molds was developed to improve the accuracy and speed of microstructured replicas while reducing costs. The results show that the developed molding process combined with a magnetic NPR conditioning system has good stability and replication capability. This research not only provides an innovative method for efficient replication of components with complex microstructures, but also contributes to the technological advancement of manufacturing precision molds. Contribution four introduces a gas molecule-assisted continuous pressure technique integrated with a precisely controlled triangular roll-to-plate (TR2P) system, enabling high-precision and stable continuous imprinting of microstructured array components. Experimental results show that the TR2P system effectively enhances the stability of microstructure replication and can modulate the extrinsic structural features by adjusting the angle of the roller shaft and ring. In addition, the continuous pressurization assisted by gas molecules significantly improves the roller impression angle and continuous pressurization time, resulting in a replication rate of up to 99.14%. This fabrication process is valuable for improving the production efficiency and quality of optical waveguide microstructured components.

3. Remanufacturing System and Evaluation Method

Remanufacturing has become one of the cornerstones of the emerging circular economy [11]; therefore, constructing the “assessment-optimization-execution” chain of the remanufacturing system can reduce the consumption of resources while maintaining normal development of the economy [12]. Contributor five proposed a decision tree-based method to evaluate the remanufacturability of used parts. The study takes the wind turbine blade as an experimental object and innovatively uses the step-by-step decomposition evaluation criteria. The four evaluation steps include failure degree evaluation, technical feasibility evaluation, economic feasibility evaluation, and environmental feasibility evaluation. It also adopts the neural network model to predict the failure time of the blade. The experimental results show that this method not only considers the feasibility of product remanufacturability at the design stage, but also optimizes and makes decisions on the remanufacturing process of the product. Contribution six proposes an integrated design method based on a multi-objective optimization model for the remanufacturing stage of used products, which is used to solve the solution design problem in the remanufacturing process of used products in complex situations. This work represents the first attempt to simultaneously optimize three critical dimensions: remanufacturing performance, cost constraints, and carbon emissions, thereby resolving the process parameter co-optimization problem in remanufacturing systems. It shows that the method can effectively guide the design of the remanufacturing process of used products, realize energy savings and consumption reduction while guaranteeing the quality of the products, and provide an effective tool for generating design solutions for the remanufacturing industry. Contribution seven proposes a method of remanufacturing intelligent design for the design stage of new products, constructs a bidirectional mapping model of design parameters with remanufacturability and carbon emission, and realizes the automatic generation and virtual verification of remanufacturing solutions. In this study, an injection mold is used as an example for validation, and the results show that the intelligent design method proposed in this study can quickly and accurately find a solution that meets the design requirements, and it can significantly reduce the carbon emission and improve the product performance. Contribution eight proposes a closed-loop supply chain decision-making framework with government–enterprise collaboration, which aims to optimize the recycling and remanufacturing system of used and end-of-life products by quantifying and analyzing the interaction effect between manufacturers’ recycling activities and government subsidy policies. The study reveals the rule that “recycling efforts need to be accurately matched with subsidy policies”, and verifies the feasibility of the dual leverage of policy and market to drive the circular economy.

4. Low Carbon Assessment and Optimization Model

Low-carbon issues have received widespread attention from governments and enterprises around the world [13], and various types of models can help accurately predict and optimize carbon emissions [14]. Carbon assessment methods include bottom-up, top-down, and LCA [15]. Contribution nine aims to solve the problem of neglecting human energy consumption in the traditional carbon emission assessment of manufacturing systems, and innovatively constructs the human–machine energy Triphasic exergy loss model for bottom-up carbon estimation. The experiment shows that the operator energy consumption accounts for 18.3%, which proves that the operator energy consumption cannot be neglected and drives enterprises to optimize the human–machine collaboration strategy and reduce non-essential walking. This is in addition to exploring the proportion of energy consumption at different stages, thus pointing out the potential direction of improving the energy efficiency of the system. Contribution ten takes the example of green technology projects in China’s automotive industry and proposes a three-level hybrid method, using fuzzy Delphi to screen key barriers, Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) to construct a four-level barrier structure, and MICMAC analysis to classify types of driving forces. The study reveals key factors and their interrelationships that hinder the adoption of low carbon manufacturing (LCM). The results show that “difficulties in transitioning to energy efficient technologies” and “lack of operational efficiency” are the two main challenges, while information imbalances and asymmetries are also identified as important barriers. In addition, the study emphasizes the importance of developing effective policies to promote the adoption of LCM. This paper not only enriches the understanding of the challenges of LCM adoption in green technology programs, but also provides valuable policy recommendations and action guidance for governments and enterprises to promote the sustainable development of the automotive industry in China and globally.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the authors, reviewers, and editorial team members who played a key role in the publication of this Special Issue. It was precisely their valuable contributions that enabled this Special Issue to be published successfully. We expect this Special Issue to stimulate more in-depth research and discussion on the related theories, methods, and technologies, promoting their continuous development and application, thereby facilitating the advancement of low-carbon design and manufacturing processes. Our ultimate goal is to promote the development of sustainable production methods and contribute to the realization of a sustainable global future.