Neutral lightweight engineering: a holistic approach towards sustainability driven engineering

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

The continuously growing social and political pressure to provide sustainable products is forcing also the lightweight industry to rethink current development and manufacturing processes. While established development approaches in lightweight engineering mainly focus on technical and economical product requirements they usually do not consider sustainability criteria. To address these challenges, a new class within the lightweight disciplines is proposed—the Neutral Lightweight Engineering. Its basic goal is to integrate sustainability criteria in all decisions along the development chain of a lightweight component. The decision makers in lightweight engineering thereby have to consider the whole life cycle of a product system from material sourcing to end-of-life part management. To implement this idea, advanced development methods are necessary, using established and emerging materials as well as efficient production and end-of-life strategies. This concept article introduces the idea of Neutral Lightweight Engineering and exemplary highlights some of its aspects before the background of scientific literature.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number17
Number of pages15
JournalDiscover Sustainability
Volume3
Issue number1
Early online date27 May 2022
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Mendeley ce56a775-8a7a-33b4-b4e7-6e70bbef93e7
Scopus 85142150571
WOS 000953287300002
ORCID /0000-0003-2689-1203/work/142233997
ORCID /0000-0003-1370-064X/work/142243715
ORCID /0000-0002-5412-2324/work/142248680

Keywords

DFG Classification of Subject Areas according to Review Boards

Keywords

  • Circular economy, Life cycle assessment, Nearly zero emission applications, Neutral lightweight engineering, Recycling, Resource efficiency