Development of circular manufacturing processes in the era of Industry 4.0

该计划旨在通过开发高精度产品中废旧材料再制造的新技术，促进从线性经济向更可持续的循环经济（CE）的转变。研究重点是陶瓷（玻璃，蓝宝石）的再加工，因为它具有优异的性能（如硬，惰性），适用于现代设备（如智能手机），难以加工和能量密集，有利于避免再熔化的新方法。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，浪费呈指数级增长；减少消费、再利用和再循环不再是选择，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，尽管早在几十年前就出现了，但仍有重大障碍阻碍着它的全面采用。主要是产品生命周期信息的缺乏和再制造技术的缺乏。此外，由于它们的生命周期越来越短和计划淘汰，高科技产品变得迅速过时，使得通过维修进行重用不再是一个可行的选择。新兴的制造业范式工业4.0——关键是智能工厂，其中灵活的制造实体在整个供应链中进行通信——似乎是一个很好的解决方案。然而，学术界和工业界对智能工厂模型的研究主要集中在数据集成、装配和产品跟踪方面。自动化拆解在回收行业正在兴起，但利用工业4.0技术释放循环制造全部潜力的研究才刚刚开始，关于再制造和智能拆解的研究很少，缺乏具体的案例研究。该计划旨在通过将其整合到工业4.0范式中来开发一个研究框架，以提高CE的性能，并为回收利用提供补充方法。案例研究将在以下方面展开：1)再加工回收；2)智能拆卸。该方案的新颖之处在于开发了再制造的新方法，开辟了智能拆卸的新研究领域；这两者都是在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，损害了加拿大的经济福祉。根据其制造商董事会的说法，采用新技术和发展熟练的先进制造劳动力是解决这一问题的关键。欧盟严格的二氧化碳排放和回收政策进一步迫使加拿大工业向CE迈进。该计划旨在通过开发新颖的先进（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.