Flow properties with changing parameter

Question

Hi LCA-Crew,

i would like to model the production of electronics. I use different global parameters to allow different scenarios. One thing I really like is the easy way to convert from say items to cm² of PCB area using the same process by using flow properties, e.g. 1 Item eq. Xmm².

The problem I would like to solve now is to have the freedom to also use parameters using this flow property, but I can not enter parameters there.

Is there a nice way to work around that issue and still stay flexible? I could create a process which converts the unit, but then I would have to use different flows, which makes everything a little bit clunky.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Answer 1

Hi, thank you for the feedback! So far flow properties cannot be changed via parameters, you could of course mimic this behaviour by introducing parameters in the amount field of the input output sheet of a process. We do not have parameters on unit conversions since we assume these are following fix rules and thus do not require formulas or parameters.

Comments

Thanks a lot for your quick reply! I tried it that way, but faced some difficulties (read: more needs to work around this issue), parametrizing the flow properties, I think, would be the cleaner way.
For some processes I have data for e.g. X items, for other per cm2. So when I use my flow PCB in #items, but I need it in area, I need to put 1/conversionfactor #items (which is then in cm2, but will not show as such).

In the result this will also show as in 1/... #items, which can be confusing when I want to continue my calculations in cm2 for example, or am I doing this wrong?

Thanks a lot again and I wish a wonderful weekend!

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You simply put for each different PCB a flow property for 1 item and for 1 area. So you can specify how much cm2 each item for each different PCB/flow has. In the process you can then insert your flows as item or cm2, as you want. The calculation will be correct.