PREMISE: Ecologically and Economically Conscious Manufacturing of Polymer Composites - Coating Process Selection

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The Product Realization and Environmental Manufacturing Innovative Systems (PREMISE) Exploratory research and education activities will initiate one of the first efforts for integrated systematic analysis of technical, economic and life cycle environmental aspects of manufactured products and processes at multiple spatial scales, with specific emphasis on polymer composites. Advanced polymeric composite materials are used widely in their enormous range of lightweight products with superior physical/mechanical properties. Although these composites provide many advantages in the use phase, they pose significant environmental challenges throughout their life cycle. These challenges include the use of non-renewable resources, emissions of hazardous chemicals, energy use, and difficulty in recycling. Many innovative processes for tasks such as, molding and coating seem to be economically viable with a smaller environmental impact. However, industry is often reluctant to adopt many of these techniques primarily due to a lack of comprehensive studies and tools to compare and evaluate the technical, environmental and economic aspects of various composite-manufacturing processes. The need for such research is identifies in the recent NSF/DOE report on chemical industry. This proposal brings together investigators from different engineering departments and universities with complementary skills. The industrial partners, Omnova and Honda, will help in obtaining the required data for this work. Furthermore, through the university's Center for Advanced Polymer and Composite Engineering (CAPCE) the proposed work will have access to 27 industrial members and state-of the art facilities while providing access to undergraduate and graduate students.