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Procedia CIRP 48 (2016) 62 – 67

23rd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering

Life Cycle Assessment of Arc Welding and Gas Welding Processes

K S Sangwan1*, Christoph Herrmann2 , Patricia Egede2, Vikrant Bhakar1, Jakob Singer2
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla institute of technology and science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India
2
Institute for Machine Tools and Manufacturing Technology, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +911596515205; fax: +0-000-000-0000. E-mail address: kss@pilani.bits-pilan i.ac.in

Abstract

Welding is one of the important processes in most of the manufacturing process chains. In term of material and energy consumption, every
welding process is different from each other and thus has different environmental impact. It is estimated that 0.5-1% of the consumables in arc
welding are converted into particulate matter, gases and emissions. On global level, the pollutants relea sed through welding process are in tons
and a large amount of energy is consumed for the same. This study attempts to evaluate the environmental impact generated due to welding for
training purpose. Material and energy flow modeling is carried out using software Umberto NXT universal with database Eco-invent version
3.0. Impact assessment has been carried out using midpoint (CML 2001) and end-point (Impact 2002+) assessment methods. It has been found
that in the production of machine/equipment (manufacturing phase) copper and mild steel are major polluter; mild steel is dominant polluter in
the use phase; and copper is the major contributor in the end of life phase. This study recommends use of simulation during training for
advanced learning technologies for different welding processes
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the scientific committee of the 23rd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Engineering.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 23rd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering
Keywords: Welding process; Life cycle assessment; Environ ment impact; Energy consumption

1. Introduction external environment. Several researchers and organizations

Increasing environmental concerns has got the priority in
process development and these practices are gaining priority
in present era of environmental consciousness. Green product
and process development is a step towards the sustainability
and life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to assess the
environmental impact of products and processes. LCA helps
the decision makers to identify the hotspots and take
appropriate steps. In the past, the term sustainability was
mainly environmentally oriented, i.e. sustainability as the
quality to sustain the environment. However, in current
literature, sustainability is defined with three dimensions:
environmental, social and economical sometimes adding a
fourth one, technology. LCA studies for various products and
processes have been carried out nowadays to achieve the goal
of green and sustainable production [1][2][3].
Welding is a process that can be carried out both indoors
and outdoors. Whenever welding is carried out, ultimately the
dust, fumes and pollutant gases will be emitted into the
have focused on the environmental consideration of welding
emissions and their effect on the environment and workers
who are involved in it [4] [5]. Three important factors in term
of welding emission are – the volume of emission, the
composition and the particle size. The fume emission during
welding is commonly less and the symphony is normally
nontoxic[6]. The size of particles that are formed due to
welding varies from the nanometer scale to hundreds of
micrometers with a mode diameter in the interval 0.1–
1.0μm[4]. These particles have high chances of deposition in
alveolar region of the lungs. Bureau of Labour Statistics
approximates in 2008 shows that the number of welding
workers are 369,610 [7]. In India, there are 1634596
engineering students intake seats for different streams of
engineering at undergraduate level [8]. All the students
undergo the basic training of welding in their first year of
education. It shows the importance of the welding process in
manufacturing sector and its environmental hazards and hence
the motivation for this study. LCA can be utilized to visualize

2212-8271 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 23rd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.03.096
 K.S. Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 48 (2016) 62 – 67
the environmental impact of product and process involved in
welding process.
2. Welding and environmental impact
In last few of years some research on environmental
impact assessment of welding processes has been carried out
by some researchers. Finkbeiner et al. [9] presented a study
of LCA of manual metal arc welding (MMAW), laser arc-
hybrid welding (LAHW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW),
and modified GMAW. The results of the study show that
MMAW has the highest effect on global warming,
acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical ozone
depletion. LAHW has minimum environmental impact and
the effect of modified GMAW is between MMAW and
LAHW.
Chang et al. [10] presented a study incorporating
environmental and social LCA of different welding
technologies. It is found in this study that the manual
welding process brings higher risk of welders to health over
the automatic processes. The cause identified for the same
are low productivity and speed of manual welding.
Sproesser et al. [11] presented a study to evaluate the
energy efficiency of the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) by
using a Tandem GMAW (TGMAW). It is found in the study
that the high power TGMAW process decreased the
electricity consumption and time required for welding by
23% and 55% respectively.
Vimal et al. [12] presented a study on sustainable SMAW
(shielded metal arc welding) process. The research work
addressed five important sustainable manufacturing
strategies – energy modeling and optimization studies, waste
minimization and disposal studies, process parametric
optimization, process emission studies, and Employee skill
training (green strategies) and involvement program – to
study their effect on SMAW. Various disposal scenarios
have been assessed using LCA.
Sproesser et al. [13] presented a research article for
selection of sustainable welding process on the basis of
weight space partitions. This study evaluates the two welding
processes – manual and automatic GMAW) – on the basis of
environmental and economical criteria. The weight space
partitions approach used in the study provides opportunity to
decision maker for assessment of sensitivity of selection
problem. However, the motivation of this study is to show
the environmental impact of simple arc welding and gas
welding processes carried out by a large number of students
in large parts of Asia and particularly in India.
3. Materials and Method
3.1. Life Cycle assessment
LCA is a tool that can be used to model the life cycle; and
calculate, analyze and evaluate at every step in the life cycle
various parameters in term of environmental impact [14]. It
includes but not restricted to flow analysis, material and
energy flows, cost accounting, outflows and inflows, and
environmental impact. Regulated by the ISO 14040 [15]
63
series standards, LCA studies comprise of four phases. Figure
1 depicts the relationship between these phases of the life
cycle.
Fig. 1 Framework of LCA (Source: [15])
In this study life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology has
been used to quantify the environmental impacts caused by
training of a student in welding section of an Indian
university's workshop per year. LCA has been performed
from cradle to grave considering production of various raw
materials starting from extraction till production of various
tools/machines required for welding shop, their use phase and
the end of useful life. Transportation of raw material, and
processes for production of various tools and equipments have
not been included in the LCA. The analysis was conducted
using Umberto NXT universal software and Eco-invent v3.0
dataset [16]. In this study CML 2001 and Impact 2002+
valuation standards have been utilized to determine the
environmental impacts. Attention has been focused on the
calculation of masses of GHG expressed as CO2 Kg
equivalent emitted during entire life cycle. Hot spots have
been identified and discussed in detail in results and
discussions section of study.
3.2. Goal and Scope Definition
Every year 850 undergraduate students get training in
different engineering shops and perform the respective
practical and make demonstrable job for the purpose of
learning and evaluation. Welding shop is one of the shops
where student practice and make job using both gas and arc
welding processes. Our goal is to assess impact on
environment due these processes for training of one student
per year at welding shop in the workshop. Product systems
under the scope definition are gas welding and arc welding.
The reference flow of the study is the arc welding and gas
welding performed per student per year during training in the
welding shop. The purpose of the study is to determine the
impacts associated with this flow 0.5m arc welding and 0.5m
gas welding per student per year.
3.3. System Boundary
64 K.S. Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 48 (2016) 62 – 67
Fig. 2 Basic flow model for LCA of weld ing training process
System boundary selected for this study considers
procurement of material (for equipments, work piece and
tools), use of equipment in training process and practical
work, and end-of-life phase of the equipments and material
used. As compared to the other phases of the life cycle,
transportation of material and equipment are negligible in
terms of environmental impact.
The analysis of the manpower and other energies is not a
part of the system boundary. In terms of electricity mix used
for the study, it is prudent to mention here that in the use
phase Indian electricity mix has been used to assess the
impacts more preciously. It also reflects that in Indian
electricity mix, approximately 60% of the total electricity is
generated by coal based power plants. Figure 2 shows the
basic Umberto model of material and energy flow in the
welding training process.
3.4. Life cycle Inventory
The primary data for the study was estimated by closely
observing the training process. For quantification of the
materials and weights, measurement was done by actual
dimensions or weight measurement, whenever possible, the
equipment brochures or internet database have been used for
reconfirming the data collected. Rest of process related data
was collected by conducting the time study during the running
training sessions at the workshop.
Primary and secondary data have been combined to create
the energy and material flow model of the study. Dataset
available in the Eco-invent v3.0 database does not exactly
match with defined process in some cases. Thus, a few
assumptions have been made throughout the study:
• Machines are assumed to be made of steel and cast iron, and
hand tools are assumed to be of either hardwood or steel.
• For the motors in the equipments, only copper winding has
been explicitly considered.
• Disposal of refractory bricks isn't considered due to its
negligible impact on environment.
3.5. Impact assessment
Life cycle Impact assessment is carried out using the CML
2001 and Impact 2002+ valuation standards. Midpoint
assessment of the welding training process is carried out using
CML 2001 valuation standard and for end-point assessment
impact 2002+ has been used. In the end-point assessment,
environmental load of a product has to be expressed in a
single score. The impact 2002+ end-point assessment is
designed around four damage categories of climate change,
human health, ecosystem quality and resources. In life cycle
impact assessment, we have to deal with three fields of
scientific knowledge and reasoning. We refer to these fields
as “spheres” [17]:
• Technosphere: the description of the life cycle, the
emissions from processes, the allocation procedures are based
on causal relations.
• Ecosphere, the modelling of changes (damages) is
inflicted on the “environment”.
• Valuesphere: the modelling of the perceived seriousness
of such changes (damages), as well as the management of
modelling choices that are made in Techno- and Ecosphere.
Life cycle model is constructed in technosphere resulting
in inventory table, whereas modelling in ecosphere is used to
link the inventory table with above mentioned damage
categories and finally valuesphere modelling is used to weight
the three endpoints to a single indicator [1]. However, CML is
a midpoint assessment method. The categories under the
midpoint and end-point assessments are mentioned below.
Midpoint categories: Acidification Potential (AP), Climate
Change (CC), Eutrophication Potential (EP), Freshwater
Aquatic Eco-Toxicity Potential (FAETP), Freshwater
Sediment Eco-Toxicity Potential (FSETP), Human Toxicity
Potential (HTP), Ionizing Radiation (IR), Marine Aquatic
Eco-Toxicity Potential (MAETP), Marine Sediment Eco-
Toxicity Potential (MSETP), Photochemical Ox (Summer
Smog), Abiotic Depletion Potential (ADP), Ozone Depletion
Potential (ODP), and Terrestrial Eco-Toxicity Potential
 K.S. Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 48 (2016) 62 – 67 65

(TETP). copper used for motor winding. In some categories like IR,
End-point categories: climate change, ecosystem quality, ADP, ODP, CC etc. the wire housing used for equipments has
human health, and resources. an impact varying from 1% to 10%. Refractory bricks,
eyewear, plastic parts cast iron has almost zero or negligible
3.5.1. Midpoint Assessment Results impact in this phase.
Treatment of waste mineral oil Treatment of waste rubber Treatment of waste glass
Arc Welding Gas welding Treatment of scrap steel Treatment of scrap copper Treatment of waste PVC
Electricity consumption Lubricating oil 100%
Job material
100% 90%

90%
80%

80%
70%
70%
60%
60%

50% 50%

40% 40%

30%
30%

20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
AP CC EP FAETP FSETP HTP IR MAETP MSETP SMOG ADP ODP TAETP

Fig. 3 M idpoint assessment of raw material phase Fig. 5 M idpoint assessment of recycling phase

Refractory Bricks Eyewear Steel for equipments Pla stic pa rts In midpoint assessment of consumer use phase (as shown in
Wire housing Copper Cast iron Bra ss
100% fig. 4) job piece material has dominant impact in all of the
categories mentioned above. Electricity consumption of arc
90%
welding process is second most impact in all the categories
80% beside the HTP, ODP and TAETP categories. Lubricating oil
use for the transformers and rectifier for arc welding process
70%
has lease impact in all the categories beside the ODP, IR, and
60% ADP categories. Effect of gas welding process and arc
welding process input is more or less similar in all the
50%
midpoint categories.
40%
Table 1 midpoint results with phase wise distribution (CM L 2001)
30%
Raw Total
Impact Consumer Recycling
Material impact Unit
20%
category (%) Use (%) (%)
(actual)
10%
AP 44.39 43.09 12.52 6.31E-03 kg SO2-Eq
CC 36.25 42.81 20.94 1.11E+00 kg CO2-Eq
0%
EP 55.44 33.67 10.89 2.70E-03 kg PO4-Eq
FAETP 1.84 1.01 97.15 3.20E+01 kg 1,4-DCB-Eq
FSETP 1.59 0.90 97.51 8.03E+01 kg 1,4-DCB-Eq
Fig. 4 M idpoint assessment of consumer use phase HTP 52.58 31.52 15.90 3.50E+00 kg 1,4-DCB-Eq

To understand the environmental impact of the training 46.44 32.28 21.29 1.40E-03 kg 1,4-DCB-Eq
TAETP
process in various categories, midpoint assessment for all
MEATP 2.12 1.24 96.64 1.01E+02 kg 1,4-DCB-Eq
three phases is carried out separately for raw materials,
MSETP 1.65 0.98 97.37 1.40E+02 kg 1,4-DCB-Eq
consumer use and recycling as shown in table 1. It is found in
IR 21.45 29.36 49.19 2.77E-09 DALYs
the raw material phase that steel used to manufacture the
equipments and machines is impacting more in all of the SMOG 47.96 39.19 12.85 4.64E-04 kg ethylene-Eq
categories beside ADP category as shown in fig. 3. After ADP 34.67 52.29 13.04 7.23E-03 kg antimony-Eq
steel, brass used for the small equipments like pressure outlet
ODP 30.66 34.25 35.09 6.09E-08 kg CFC-11-Eq
valves is second most impact in all categories followed by
66 K.S. Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 48 (2016) 62 – 67

In the recycling phase (as shown in fig. 5) of midpoint
assessment treatment of waste steel has more impact more in
AP, EP, HTP, IR, SMOG, ADP, ODP, TAETP, and it makes
it most impacting in overall impacts. Treatment of scrap
copper is impacting more in all type of eco-toxicity viz
FAETP, FSETP, HTP, MAETP, MSETP varying from 10%
to 70%. Treatment of waste mineral oil used for the
table 2 and the graphical results are shown in figure 7. It is
found that consumer use phase is dominating in all the impact
categories followed by the raw material phase. But in case of
human health impact category recycling phase break the trend
of raw material phase to follow consumer use in impacts.
Clima te cha nge Ecosystem quality Huma n hea lth Resources

transformer and rectifiers is having more impact in CC and

45.00
EP categories. Treatment of rubber is having only one
significant impact in CC category, treatment of glass, and 40.00
PVC is having approx. negligible impact in all the categories.
To analyze the impacts of these phases and materials; process 35.00
specific operational LCA is required. In figure 6 one category,
climate change is elaborated in terms of each transition and 30.00

found that material for job pieces and electricity mix impact

Percentage %
25.00
more over others. In the figure the global warming potential is
shown in an incremental manner to better understand the 20.00
scenario.
Table 2 End-point results with phase wise distribution (Impact 2002+) 15.00
Raw Total
Impact Distribution Consumer Recycling Impact in
Material Use 10.00
category (%) Points
(%) (%) (%) (actual)
5.00
Climate
36.07 8.19 34.36 21.38 1.05E-04
change
0.00
Ecosystem Raw Material Distribution Consumer Use Recycling
38.57 15.10 28.43 17.90 5.46E-05
quality
Hu man health 24.51 24.82 19.56 31.11 3.79E-04 Fig. 7 End-point assessment phase wise

Resources 33.91 8.12 42.03 15.93 9.33E-05

4. Conclusions

3.5.2. End-point assessment Results The raw material phase of the welding operation training
process is most impacting phase in all of the damage
0.4
CML 2001 - Climate change, GWP categories because of steel used to manufacture the
equipments and machines. The use phase is second most
0.35 impacting and which is due to the significant amount of
electricity consumed in the arc welding process and fumes
0.3 generated in the process of both arc and gas welding
operation. Further from the life cycle impact assessment, it
0.25
has been observed that impact due to the procurement, use
and end-of-life of low alloyed steel (hot spot) is the most
0.2
harmful to environment in welding operation training process.
0.15
Second most impacting material is copper used in the
transformer, silicon rectifier and filler rods for gas welding. It
0.1 is recommended that the width of job pieces given to the
students can be reduced. Non copper coated wire i.e. SE wire
0.05 [18][19], with the omission of the copper coating treatment
process, has less impact upon the environment than
0
conventional wires in every aspect of energy consumption,
CO2 emission and solid waste, during each manufacturing
process from raw material procurement to use. Low fume type
covered electrode/ZERODE Series [20] can be used with
Fig. 6 Climate change impact in a incremental way reduced fume generation of 30–50% compared with
conventional electrodes. This type of electrode has no burnt
The well known impact 2002+ valuation standard is slag deposit on the bead surface and a lustrous bead
utilized to assess the end-point impacts. The end-point appearance can be obtained. Furthermore, with this covered
assessment in carried out for all four categories (climate electrode the amount of spatter is reduced by slightly
change, ecosystem quality, human health, and resources) of softening (widening) the arc and also fume generation is
impacts in raw materials, consumer use, and recycling phases. reduced by approximately 10% compared with the
The tabulated results of end-point assessment are shown in conventional electrodes.
 K.S. Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 48 (2016) 62 – 67 67

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