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The Institute for Polymer Testing and Polymer Science of the University of Stuttgart has been investigating automotive parts, structures and cars during their life cycle in plenty cooperation with the European automobile producers and their suppliers for the last 9 years. Therefore a holistic approach has been developed to combine tasks from technique, economic and environment in a methodology called Life Cycle Engineering (LCE). The goal is to find a way to support designer and engineers as well as police makers and public with this three-dimensional interrelated information to have the possibility to manufacture future products in a more sustainable way without loosing contact two the traditional parameters technique and costs.

The basis for an environmental benign design of the production is the knowledge of the environmental impacts of processes. By setting up an Environmental Knowledge Management System (EKMS) the perception can be organized. The application of the EKMS is divided into two steps: 1. Documentation of the actual state with the focus on data collection and modeling of technical systems (production of products). 2. Derive from prognostic statements by means of evaluated data and the identification of potentials for optimizations. The implementation and updating lays the foundations for the environmental optimization of the planning, development and production. The target is to ensure the availability of environmental information in the entire product developing process. The decision maker can identify optimization potentials with the help of this system already in an early stage of the product development process.

The paper mainly focuses on the demonstration of modules relating the generic module based LCA approach. Therefore a short description of the methodology is given. The case study gives an overview of different models and their contents especially regarding the implemented parameters. It is described how the epoxy and the ceramic system differs from a technical point of view and how these aspects have been regarded in the different modules. The final comparison describes some scenarios and their respective consequences relating the generic modules.

The Institute for Polymer Testing and Polymer Science (IKP) is an independent institute of the University of Stuttgart. For approximately 8 years work is done on the field of Life Cycle Engineering. The first couple of years knowledge about the production of materials was collected within plenty industrial cooperation. Parallel to this a methodology for the Life Cycle Engineering approach and a software system (GaBi 1.0-2.0) were developed. Based on these information, projects for balancing single parts like bumpers, fender, air intake manifolds and oil filters followed by projects handling more complex parts or processes like several body in white, headlights, fuel tanks, green tire or coating processes were done to establish the methodology of Life Cycle Engineering as a tool for decision makers and weak point analysis. Parallel to this a methodology for an Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) for the system automobile was developed in cooperation with the Volkswagen AG in 1993.

Since about 8 years the PE Product Engineering GmbH has a cooperation with the Institute for Polymer Testing and Polymer Science of the University of Stuttgart. Together they had been investigating automotive parts, structures and cars during their life cycle with many of the European automobile producers and their suppliers. Therefore energy-, raw material-, emissions-, waste-, waste water- and cost analysis have been made. A new generation of tires will be characterized by reduced rolling resistance that results in a lower fuel consumption during the usage phase and for this reason the overall system achieve a better environmental performance. This paper will show how Life Cycle Engineering works to meet the technical, economic and environmental requirements.