Study Sees 'Alarming' Use of Energy, Materials in Newer Manufacturing Processes

[Javaman]

According to a recent study, new manufacturing systems are anywhere from 1,000 to 1 million times bigger consumers of energy than more-traditional industries. In short, pound for pound, making microchips uses up considerably more energy than making manhole covers, for example.

Manufacturers have usually been more concerned about factors like price, quality, or cycle time, and not as concerned about how much energy their manufacturing processes use, said Timothy Gutowski, a professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s department of mechanical engineering, who led the analysis. If energy prices rise again or if a carbon tax is adopted, energy use will become more important as the new industries scale up, Gutowski said.

New processes will be optimized and improved over time. But over the past several decades as traditional processes such as machining and casting have increasingly given way to newer ones for producing semiconductors, MEMS and nano-materials and devices, energy and materials consumption has increased dramatically.

“New processes are huge users of materials and energy," said Gutowski. “We have increased our energy and materials consumption by three to six orders of magnitude.”
At first glance, it may seem strange to make comparisons between such widely disparate processes as metal casting and chip making. But Gutowski says such a broad comparison of energy efficiency is an essential first step toward optimizing these newer manufacturing methods as they gear up for ever-larger production.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/science/2009/05/04/study-sees-alarming-use-of-energy-materials-in-newer-manufacturing-processes.html

[pscot]

1. There's a lot to be said for manhole covers

For one thing, they're round, which is an aesthetically pleasing shape. And often they have interesting designs of a historic or folkloric nature for the edification of the public. Also, they really last, unlike your microchip, which is probably going to end up in a landfill within 10 years. Seattle has manhole covers that go back 80 years, and they're still perfectly servicable; good as new, in fact. You never hear a sewer worker grousing that he can't get the job done because of these damned obsolete manhole covers. Best of all, they are made locally and used locally. Any competent foundry can run up a thousand for you without batting an eye, the only drawback being, it'll be quite a while before they get any repeat business.