Environmental Impact Assessment Studies in Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

International audienceThis chapter focuses on the environmental studies in additive manufacturing. For a cleaner production, environmental impacts that occur during the manufacturing phase should be assessed with accuracy. First, the literature on all the studies led to the characterization of the environmental impact of additive manufacturing processes. The studies on electric energy consumption of these processes are analyzed here, and then some studies taking into account raw material and all the flows through the process are detailed. Secondly, a new methodology in order to evaluate, with accuracy, the environmental impact of a part from its CAD model is presented. In this methodology, the work is not focused only on electrical consumption but also on fluids and material consumption which also contribute to the environmental impact. In addition, the inputs of this methodology correspond to the set part process, which allows taking into account different manufacturing strategies and their influences on the global environmental impact. The methodology developed is based on both analytic models (validated by experiments) and experimental models. And finally, an industrial example shows that for some manufacturing strategies, the environmental impact due to electrical consumption is not the predominant one. In this case study, material consumption has an important impact and has to be taken into consideration for a complete environmental impact assessment

Influence of exposure time on energy consumption and mechanical properties of SLM fabricated parts

“…Additive manufacturing (AM), defined as a process of joining materials, usually layer by layer, to make objects from 3D model as opposed to subtractive manufacturing (Frazier, 2014), is often considered a more energy-conserving and environment-friendly technology (Kerbrat et al, 2016). It is attracting more and more attention for its capability of creating extreme complex geometry, enabling shorter production life cycle, as well as its potential in sustainability (Baumers et al, 2011).…”

The Potential of Additive Manufacturing in the Smart Factory Industrial 4.0: A Review

“…Furthermore, this methodology applies a set part process, which leads to considering various production strategies and the resulting influence on the universal environmental impact. The methodology was according to both analytical and experimental models [163]. Le Bourhis et al also proposed another methodology that all consumptions including fluids, electricity, and material, were considered in the evaluation of the environmental impact.…”

Framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Additive Manufacturing

“…AM is a significant technological innovation in the field of advanced manufacturing. A number of benefits of AM have been discussed in the literature, ranging from design flexibility, product customization, and minimum raw material utilization to shortening of supply chains and potential reduction of overall environmental impacts [5,[26][27][28][29][30][31]. A comprehensive definition of AM is given by American Society of Testing and Materials as "A process of joining materials to make objects from a 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing technologies" [32].…”

“…References Design flexibility with complex geometries [5,7,26,29,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] Reduced environmental impact [7,27,[38][39][40]42,[44][45][46][47][48] Maximum material utilization with lesser waste generation [6,7,27,29,36,41,43,44,46,48,49] Less energy consumption and CO2 emissions [6,14,26,38,39,[43][44][45]48] CAD-to-part in single process without the necessity of tools [6,7,36,41,43,[49][50]…”