Development of circular manufacturing processes in the era of Industry 4.0

拟议的计划旨在通过开发用于对要求高精度的产品中的旧材料进行再制造的新技术，为从线性经济向更可持续的循环经济(CE)的转变做出贡献。研究重点放在陶瓷(玻璃、蓝宝石)的再加工上，因为它对于现代设备(例如用于智能手机)具有优异的性能(例如，硬的、惰性的)，很难加工，而且熔化是能量密集型的，有利于采用新的方法避免重熔。人类面临着巨大的挑战，因为人类每年都在逐渐耗尽自然的预算。与此同时，废物呈指数级增长；减少消耗、再利用和回收不再是选择，而是对地球上可持续的人类活动至关重要。CE的概念旨在通过关闭整个供应链的材料循环来解决这些问题。然而，几十年前就已经出现了重大障碍，阻碍了它的全面采用。主要原因是缺乏关于产品生命周期的信息和缺乏再制造技术。此外，由于它们的生命周期越来越短，计划中的过时，高科技产品很快就会过时，通过维修重复使用不再是一个可行的选择。新兴的制造范式Industry 4.0-关键是智能工厂，其中灵活的制造实体在供应链上进行通信-似乎是一个出色的解决方案。然而，学术界和产业界对智能工厂模型的研发主要集中在数据集成、装配和产品跟踪方面。自动化拆卸在回收行业正在兴起，但利用Industry 4.0技术释放循环制造的全部潜力的研究才刚刚开始，关于再制造和智能拆卸的研究很少，缺乏具体的案例研究。该计划旨在开发一个框架，通过将其整合到工业4.0范式中来提高CE的性能，并实现循环利用的互补方法。将开发以下案例研究：1)用于回收的再加工；2)智能拆卸。该计划的新颖之处在于开发了用于再制造的新方法，并开辟了智能拆卸的新研究领域；这两个要素都是在CE中实施工业4.0技术的关键要素。加拿大制造业在国际上举步维艰，侵蚀着加拿大的经济福祉。根据加拿大制造商委员会的说法，采用新技术和培养熟练的先进制造业劳动力是解决这一问题的关键。欧盟对二氧化碳排放和回收利用的严格政策正在进一步迫使加拿大工业走向CE。拟议的计划旨在通过开发新的先进(再)制造技术来支持加拿大制造业实施循环制造方法，并通过培训未来的工程师来缩小制造业劳动力的技能差距。

The proposed program aims to contribute to the transformation from a linear economy to a more sustainable Circular Economy (CE) by developing novel technologies for re-manufacturing of used materials in products demanding high precision. Research focus is on re-machining ceramic (glass, sapphire) as it has excellent properties (e.g. hard, inert) for modern devices (e.g. used in smartphones), it is difficult to machine and energy-intensive to melt favoring novel methods avoiding re-melting. Humanity faces dramatic challenges, as humanity is exhausting nature's budget progressively each year. At the same time waste is growing exponentially; consumption reduction, reusing and recycling are no longer options but vital for sustainable human activities on earth. The concept of a CE aims to address these issues by closing the material loop across the full supply chain. Yet, emerged already decades ago, significant barriers prevent its full adoption. Major ones being lack of information on the product life cycles and shortage of technologies for re-manufacturing. Further, due to their ever shorter lifecycles and planned obsolescence, high-technology products become rapidly obsolete making reuse by repair not a viable option anymore. The emerging manufacturing paradigm Industry 4.0 - key are smart factories in which flexible manufacturing entities communicate across the supply chain - seems to be an excellent solution. However, academic and industrial R&D on smart factory models mainly focus on data integration, assembly and product tracking. Automated disassembly is emerging in recycle industry, but research on taking advantage of Industry 4.0 technologies to unlock the full potential of circular manufacturing is just starting and few research is conducted on re-manufacturing and smart disassembly and concrete case studies are lacking. This program aims to develop a framework for study on improving performance of CE by integrating it into the Industry 4.0 paradigm and to enable complementary approaches for recycling.  Case studies will be developed on: 1) re-machining for recycling; 2) smart disassembly.  The novelty of the program is the development of novel approaches for re-manufacturing and opening up a new research area on smart disassembly; both key elements for implementing Industry 4.0 technologies in the CE. Canadian manufacturing industry is struggling internationally eroding Canada's economic well-being. According to its Manufacturers board adoption of new technologies and developing skilled advanced manufacturing workforce is key to address this problem. Stringent EU policies on CO2 emission & recycling are further forcing Canadian industry to move towards a CE. The proposed program aims to support Canadian manufacturing industry to implement circular manufacturing approaches by developing novel advanced (re-)manufacturing technologies and to close the skills gap for the manufacturing workforce by training of future engineers.