Material Selection: Taking Environmental Business Risks Into Account

Material trade studies are adept at identifying and mitigating safety risks related to the technical properties of the materials under consideration. However, there are a new and emerging set of business risks related to environmental issues. These are creating a need for new approaches and tools for material selection that can take into account issues such as:

• Lifecycle energy use and CO₂ emissions
• Hazardous substances legislation
• Access to raw materials
• Conflict mineral risk

Failure to consider these issues as part of a material trade study may result in: organisations not being able to source the materials they require to manufacture their products; restrictions on the markets in which they can legally sell their products; or significant increases in production costs.

Whilst many of these risks are likely to develop over a period of years rather than months, the very long design cycles and service life of aerospace products means that they are more likely to be affected by supply disruptions or evolving environmental legislation over the course of their lifetime. Furthermore, material substitution and certification for aerospace applications is often a very complex and lengthy process which means that there are no ‘quick-fixes’ when a supply disruption occurs. These two factors combined mean that aerospace companies have a particularly strong need to understand and take early action to mitigate environmental business risks.

This paper will present the outcomes of a research program involving Rolls-Royce plc. and Granta Design Ltd. that has led to the development of novel software tools to enable the early stage assessment of environmental business risks as part of material selection and the design process. The presentation will also discuss efforts by the UK Aerospace, Defence and Securities trade association to generate standard industry metrics for reporting on the environmental business risks