Author

Hiroo SHIZUKA

Shizuoka University

Abstract

Since the Industrial Revolution, the manufacturing industry has become more convenient and affluent than the lifestyle of people, which has also under gone rapid development. However, such development accompanied consumption of enormous amount of finite natural resources and environmental destruction. In the second half of the 20th century, environmental pollution and global warming were created at the expense of the industrial development. In this regard, conversion to permanently sustainable industrial structure has become necessary while considering the environment.

In the production and processing sector also, environment and ecology became an important issue, for instance in 90s, Dioxin became a hot potato in society and PRTR law (law that controls release of certain chemicals) was stipulated to protect the environment, leading to research and development of environment-friendly processing technologies. Japan and Germany are especially active in the research of these technologies and in Japan, a coinage ‘eco-machining’ was created and used generally.

In environmental processing technologies, there are many tasks, such as reduction of power consumption, waste of the machine tool, and efficiency of production activities. However, among these, oil solution is regarded to be the most pressing concern. For grinding or cutting, a large amount of the processing fluid is used rather than for the purpose of lubrication, cooling, or cutting waste discharge. Using too much processing fluid can create immense disposal waste. In Japan alone, one million tons of waste liquid are disposed. They pollute the environment as well as affecting human lives. In this regard, reducing usage of the processing fluid remains an important issue to be resolved, and numerous research institutes and universities have been working on this.

Date of issue

2017/12/01