13 th Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power

The sector of construction equipment is currently in change. The scarcity of fossil resources and raw materials as well as rising energy costs in the last years and new political and technical requirements has brought the industry to a massive rethinking. A reduction of energy consumption is one of the most important innovation topics in this industry branch. In order to fulfill high energy requirements in the near future, extensive concepts, new structures and innovative technical approaches increasing the total energy efficiency of the product are needed. Therefore the importance of life cycle based eco-efficiency analysis must be considered. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Eco-efficiency assessment are powerful tools for achieving design for life cycle. An LCA examines all stages of a product’s life cycle and gives a quantitative assessment of its potential environmental impact. In addition, the results of an Ecoefficiency assessment help to identify priority areas for ecological improvement which are economically worthwhile. This paper presents a comprehensive approach integrating technical analyses to recognize and evaluate possible improvement areas within the machine’s construction for doing a quantitative assessment of the environmental impact of the improved technical concepts. The paper describes how LCA and Eco-efficiency assessment can be applied for hydraulic and hybrid concepts and how it can be used to improve the environmental performance of a product in an early step of the life cycle. The approach is demonstrated on the example of a wheeled excavator.