Balancing material and exergy flows for a PCB soldering process: Method and a case study

Use of thermodynamics metrics (e.g. exergy) as sustainability analysis tools offers an insight into energy resources use in both energy and non-energy technologies. This study is devoted to an analysis of material, energy and exergy flows along a manufacturing line of a PCB-based products´ manufacturing operation. It is observed that a large quantity of available energy is inherently dissipated even if a state-of-the-art process is adopted. Drastic change in an approach towards developing new, transformational technologies are mandatory if a sustainable development is to be achieved through improvements of resources use. These changes may be guided by an insight obtained through thermodynamics metrics studies.