Surface engineering ― how environmentally friendly is it?

摘要

The authors are convinced of the important role surface engineering has to play in environmental design, over a wide range of potential benefits. Many of the surface engineering techniques are claimed to be environmentally friendly compared to the existing techniques. This paper attempts to assess this claim and identify the potential environmental impact of some of these processes. Aspects considered are energy consumption, use of consumables, fundamental aspects of the processes, equipment clean-up, emissions and discharges, quality issues and recycling and coating removal. All of these areas may contribute to a reduction in the environmentally friendly claims if due consideration of them is not made in assessment process.