Environmental Impact of Additive Manufacturing Processes: Does AM contribute to a more sustainable way of part manufacturing?

Abstract

While additive manufacturing applications are progressing from rapid prototyping to the production of end-use products, the environmental impacts caused by these manufacturing processes and related material flows are still a rather open question. Therefore, this paper will provide an overview of available life cycle inventory data and compare the environmental impact caused by a series of additive manufacturing processes: selective laser melting, selective laser sintering, electron beam melting, fused deposition modelling and stereolithography. Next to the energy and resource consumption of the AM unit processes itself, also the impact caused during the (powder) material production and part post treatment are addressed. From environmental perspective it is clear that the additionally generated impacts during manufacturing should be compensated by functional improvements during the use phase of the AM manufactured part. As example, the case of lightweight components is discussed. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.