Example application in sustainable industrial product design: 22 kw ac electric vehicle charging station

The carbon emissions brought about by industrialization are increasing globally with each passing day. This rise is triggering the climate crisis, causing unexpected natural events, and making the concept of sustainability even more important. However, sustainability has not yet fully developed across different disciplines and sectors. In this study, sustainable design strategies have been investigated and applied in industrial design. The study aimed to produce applicable results for both science and industry through university-industry collaboration. Strategies related to sustainable design were investigated under the following headings: EU Ecodesign, Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Design, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Eco Label, CE Certification, and Circular Economy. The strategies were evaluated in terms of their impact and scope, and the most effective sustainable design strategy for the product's target market was determined. Within the framework of industry collaboration, the target market for the planned 22 kW AC electric vehicle charging station was identified as Germany, and it was found that the EU Ecodesign strategy was the most suitable. Furthermore, to create a comprehensive application of industrial product design processes, the following steps were taken: Concept designs were developed using the Design Thinking methodology, a concept was selected by the industrial partner using the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methodology, material combinations were created through the Rule of Mixture methodology, and finally, static stress analyses were performed on the parts whose engineering design had been completed. The most suitable material combination was then determined based on the safety factor values. Upon completion of the industrial product design processes, a scaled model was created, and assembly was carried out using the electronic components provided by the company. In this way, it was practically demonstrated that determining and applying the correct sustainable design strategy in terms of impact and scope can reduce carbon emissions by 25% during the product design process alone. The raw material emissions for the parts designed in industrial design amounted to 8.848 kg of CO2.