Environmental impact assessment studies in additive manufacturing

Abstract

This 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 characterisation of the environmental impact of additive manufacturing processes. The studies on electric energy consumption of these processes are analysed 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.