Multi-criteria decision model of sustainable industrial production: A case study on 3D printed carbon PA

Abstract

In the Concurrent Engineering (CE) approach, several aspects of the life cycle of a product are considered at the same time during the design phase. This allows to respond more quickly to the market needs and improves the final products quality. However, with this approach, the design phase could result more time consuming and expensive and needs simple and easily applicable optimization models. For this reason, a new multi-criteria decision model is proposed in this paper. Additive manufacturing technologies for high performances polymers are gaining increasing interest as they are a valid option for the manufacturing of structural components. For these reasons, high performance 3D printed isogrid structures in short carbon fibers reinforced polyamide were selected as a case study. Production processes of as-printed and dried isogrid structures were carried out; mechanical characterization and environmental and cost analysis were performed on the considered scenarios. Following the proposed model, the results of the analyses were used to calculate a single value indicator for each product. In this way, it was possible to compare the different alternative and select the optimal solution.