Sustainability In Safety: Evaluating Passive Safety Components Through Life Cycle Assessment

In recent years, growing concerns for environmental sustainability and workplace health and safety, as emphasized in the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, have become increasingly prominent. This paper delves into the environmental impact assessment of passive safety devices for machine tools, aligning with international standards. Through a detailed Life Cycle Assessment, we analyse two distinct passive protective devices: a fixed fairing tailored for parallel CNC lathes and a perimeter fairing for large-size milling machines. The findings highlight steel as the predominant contributor to various environmental impact categories, showing its significant role in environmental damage. Consequently, the main way for enhancing the environmental sustainability of machine tool passive protective devices lies in minimizing and substituting, whenever feasible, the use of steel with less environmentally harmful materials.