Sustainability in additive manufacturing-a review

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the developments in sustainability performance indicators (SPI) as well as various applications thereof in Additive manufacturing (AM). AM is a manufacturing process where material is added rather than subtracted to produce a functional part. Common AM technologies such as fused deposition modeling (FDM) allows the user to create parts that conventional machine is not be able to reproduce all in a single process, not including post-process finishing. Mechanical parts with hollow insides and optimized shapes are easily fabricated using AM. Since the process adds material instead of removing material, less material is wasted. Material is only deposited where it is needed. The only case where more material is used than is needed is when support structures are used. Support structures allow a complex shape to be manufactured where there is not sufficient material to support the structure on the machine’s build surface. As AM is fully capable of fabricating complex shapes, the user can alter the shape of the part to reduce the amount of material needed to produce it. A general rule of thumb is that the more material required, the more time and energy the process will consume.