Sustainable Welding Processes – Case Study of Hard Coating Application in Sugar Cane Mills

Abstract:

Studies that are carried out in the evaluation of the sustainability of welding processes, are mainly focused on waste generation issues. Within this line of research, when analyzing spatter from welding, as a contaminating residue and a loss of financial resources, it is clear that this subject is little explored. Thus, this work presents an analysis on the application of hard coating by the Flux-Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) process. The objective is to study the influence of the welding speed parameter on the deposition yield in the application of hard coating, in milling liners. The aspects related to the Triple Bottom Line were discussed in favor of sustainable manufacturing and will be focused on the economic and environmental pillars in this study. As a starting point, we contacted a partner company that performs this procedure using peripheral welding speeds with 10 m/min. As proposed in this study, using speeds of 6 and 13.6 m/min, the deposition yield for the 3 speeds was calculated. There was an 20,22% improvement in yield when the speed was reduced from 10 to 6 m/min. In the sugar and alcohol industries in Brazil, this improvement is reflected in savings of U$ 1,4 million per year and would avoid generating 385,000 kg of hazardous materials.

Key-words:
Sustainability; Sustainable manufacturing; Welding; Deposition yield; Mills