Multi-objective process route optimization considering carbon emissions

Process route planning bridges the gap between design stage and manufacturing stage, which transforms workblanks into parts or products. The decisions of processing methods, machines, cutting tools, and sequence of process stages during process route planning have a significant impact on carbon emissions in manufacturing process. To reduce carbon emissions of process routes of parts and simultaneously consider economic and high-efficiency factors, a low-carbon multi-objective process route optimization method is proposed. Firstly, a constructed PBOM (process bill of material) based on machining features of parts is used to quantify carbon emissions of every processing step. Secondly, a multi-objective optimization model of process routes with the objectives of minimum carbon emissions, minimum processing cost, and minimum processing time is built based on the PBOM. Thirdly, a multi-objective ant colony algorithm is designed to solve the proposed model. Finally, a practical applicable bearing seat is taken as a case study to verify the rationality of the proposed method. Comparison results show that the proposed method can obtain the low-carbon, economic, and high-efficiency process routes for parts.