Sustainability spirit in manufacturing/machining processes

The paper presents methods for achieving production sustainability on a machining technology level. Industry is under increasing pressure from global competition, stricter environmental legislation, and supply-chain demand for improved sustainability performance. In order to tackle these issues, the paper promotes sustainable production via the improvement of machining technologies that have a high potential to cut costs and improve competitiveness by reducing resource consumption and thus creating less waste. In this way the products and processes could yield improved usefulness and have less of an environmental impact. The general issues of sustainable production technologies are in this paper covered through changes in products, systems, and processes based on sustainability issues. The idea is confirmed by a case study on the implementation and sustainability evaluation of innovative cryogenic and high pressure jet assisted machining processes in comparison to conventional machining process.