Life Cycle Assessment of Surface Mount Technology equipment (MyLCA)
A bilateral project with Mycronic AB
Modern electronics industry is changing rapidly. Today’s electronics include complex circuit boards, highly advanced and miniaturized components using novel materials and dispensing media. The manufacturing of the products, in mixed production volumes and without compromising on quality, productivity and cost, is a key challenge in the industry. To address this challenge, Mycronic AB has developed automation machines for most aspects of the production process. Mycronic’s Surface Mount Technology (SMT) machines locate, load, mount, and trace these advanced components. With the emergence of stricter environmental regulations and increased awareness about sustainability, Mycronic is interested in understanding the environmental impacts of its products.
Goals of the project
The project aims to study and quantify the lifecycle impact of a Mycronic SMT machine, using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. The project will develop a general LCA analysis method that later will be used by Mycronic when performing LCA for other Mycronic products.
This project is in line with the Mycronic’s sustainability strategies of “reducing environmental impacts” and “enabling innovation” and may lead to improved guidelines and directives for reducing environmental impacts. The results of the impact assessment can potentially result in two types of innovations at Mycronic: i) Engineering Innovation and ii) Policy Innovation. The engineering innovation includes modifications in design, alternative materials, and manufacturing processes to minimize the product’s emissions. Policy innovation involves the possible changes and “shifts” in the strategic planning, marketing, branding, Corporate Social Responsibility etc. arising from the recommendations of the LCA results. Furthermore, this project is expected to increase awareness about sustainable manufacturing at Mycronic.
Project duration
2020-08-15 - 2021-01-15
Implementation
The project will be carried out through a bilateral project between the Department of Production Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Mycronic AB.
The project will include the following tasks at a higher level:
- Define the goal, scope, functional unit, impact assessment method etc. for the LCA study
- Make life cycle inventory analysis which includes modelling and quantifying input and output flows
- Conduct the impact assessment that is translating the inventory flows into environmental impacts
- Interpret the results, draw conclusions and recommendations, and prepare a final report