Design for Environment
Environmental performance in the automotive industry is becoming ever more important. In order to ensure that these goals are met, it is necessary to consider environmental performance at an early stage of the design process. New vehicle programmes have several important targets for environmental product design:
- Improving the re-usability, recyclability, and recoverability to minimise impact on the end-of-life process
- Reducing substances of concern to eliminate risk to human health and the environment
- Increasing the fuel efficiency in order to provide vehicles with lower emission levels
A balance is necessary if optimal environmental performance is to be achieved. The environmental impact of various life cycle stages of a product, raw material through to end-of-life treatment, must be considered.
- Product Lifecycle
To promote and improve environmental product design, YAZAKI Europe Limited has implemented Design for Environment (DfE) Guidelines, which enable the engineer to assess the environmental performance of future products, or to evaluate the impact on the environmental of proposed design changes.
Highest importance is given to several EU directives and regulations affecting the automotive industry. Some are product specific, whereas others are generic and are applicable across all sectors. Mandatory measures are Environmental Legislation, Substances of Concern, Material Marking and Recyclates.
YAZAKI Corporation views mandatory legislation as a minimum standard of achievement, and always tries to surpass the requirements set by the government.
How we manage it
Material Marking
In terms of recycling, one of the major areas identified for improvement is the recovery and recycling of plastic materials within the industry. Plastics are increasing in the number of applications for which they are used in the vehicle, but at the end-of-life treatment phase much of this material has thus far been sent to landfill.
In order to improve the process of separation and sorting of plastics and elastomers the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive says that parts - above a specified weight made from these materials - should be clearly marked with the symbol for the material according to the measures set out in the ISO standards.
Components supplied by YAZAKI to the vehicle industry have such marks, even below the thresholds laid out as part of the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive.
Recycling
Automotive wiring harness contains a wide variety of components, some of which are suitable for consideration at the design stage regarding the incorporation of recycled materials (e.g. cable channels, covers, etc.).Testing demonstrates that these components retain full functionality (e.g. clip securing, hinges, channels and housing etc.) when manufactured using recycled materials.
Weight Reduction
The strategies employed for weight reduction in vehicles are less material, lighter material and integrated designs. For automotive wiring harness parts, one example where less material can be used is by incorporating wires with thin-wall insulation or smaller wire sizes where practical.
Halogen-Free Material
Replacement of polyvinyl chloride as wiring harness insulation and related components can be achieved by using polyolefin-based insulation materials. The flame retardant properties of these materials and those for other components can be achieved using halogen-free flame retardants. YAZAKI and its strong environmental approach lead to successful mass production already in 2000.
Design for Dismantling
Automotive wiring harness parts often contain some quite valuable materials for recycling (e.g. copper, other metals, etc.), but as for all recycling processes separation can be labour intensive. This adds significant cost to the process, which can ultimately make material recycling not worthwhile. The situation can be improved at the design stage by designing parts that are easier to dismantle.
