Sustainable impact evaluation of support structures in the production of extrusion-based parts

Abstract

Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in a productive harmony, fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. Environmental and social concerns about human society’s impact on the natural environment have been pushing sustainable development issues. Sustainable industrial practices can contribute to the development of more sustainable materials, products, and processes. It is critical to apply eco-design principles and develop greener products and production processes, reducing impacts associated with production and consumption. Bearing this in mind, additive manufacturing has the capability of producing components with the lowest amount of raw material. Alongside with the raw material, in some additive manufacturing systems, support material is needed in order to undergo the production. This present work aims to evaluate the environmental impact of the support production methodologies in order to deliver awareness to the users of extrusion-based systems for a lower environmental impact assessment. The extra production time involved in the production of the support structures and the support structure removal is evaluated. The evaluation consisted of correlating the volume of support material and the time needed for its dissolution. Two different models were then compared with different support material production schemes, regarding the total energy consumption and its environmental impact. The results demonstrate that different support production schemes have significant environmental impact regarding both production and its dissolution.