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2576 |
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Wednesday, September 28, 2011, Saal B2.2 2:00 PM Quality & Qualification |
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Life cycle assessment of thick coating processes |
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Nicolas Serres / INSA de Strasbourg, France Sophie Costil* / LERMPS - UTBM, France Cécile Langlade/ LERMPS - UTBM, France Christian Coddet/ LERMPS - UTBM, France |
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Thermal spray processes are very useful to improve resistance against wear and/or corrosion, as well as the thermal properties of mechanical parts in a several industrial fields. Even if the technical performances of all processes are well-known studied, there environmental behaviour is not often considered. According to the IPPC directive, which has introduced the Best Available Techniques, the substitution of conventional electrolytic deposition processes - that involve toxic substances and effluents - by dry processes, such as thermal spraying, was advised. Thus, it seems useful to compare various dry processes from an environmental point of view, with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which allows comparing and trying to reduce the environmental impacts of these technologies. Indeed, all processes have impacts on human health, ecosystems and resources. In this work, a LCA based on Eco-indicator 99 methodology was used to compare the environmental impacts and benefits of thermal spraying (including APS, HVOF, Flame and Cold Spray) carried out with materials which could be used in application to resist against wear and/or corrosion. The comparison was carried out using the SimaPro 7.1 software, and it was focused on all stages necessary to build the coating, i.e. extraction of raw materials, production of powder, transport, surface preparation, thermal spray operating, until the end of life, as well as emissions (solid, liquid and gaseous) at each stage of a process. As a major result, it appears that the lifetime of the coatings plays a high role. If a coating needs to be regularly replaced or if failure of the coating decreases the lifetime of the component, this almost impact on the LCA. Moreover, there is an influence on the nature of the resources used to build the coating, as well as on the end of life strategies. |