Manufacturing and related activities, such as energy production, transportation, and mining, have been known to be the most harmful human activities in terms of their impact on the environment. The current trend in traditional manufacturing activities is not sustainable. Those activities are harming our planet through global warming, environmental pollution, and natural resource depletion. In this regard, Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, has been regarded as a more sustainable manufacturing method compared to traditional manufacturing techniques. So far, most research has been performed on the sustainability of 3D printing of plastic parts. The main reason behind this is the availability of completely developed plastic printing technologies. However, plastic parts have limited application in manufacturing activities, such as new product evaluation and rapid prototyping. Metal printing, on the other hand, has more applicability in the industry from rapid prototyping to rapid manufacturing of actual parts and assemblies; hence, in this study, we concentrated on the sustainability analysis of a promising metal additive technology known as Bound Metal Deposition (BDM). BDM is a proven technology to produce 3D-printed parts from various materials such as stainless steel, tool steel, carbon steel, copper, and titanium. In this first phase of the research, energy consumption characteristics were analyzed. In the next phase, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will be performed according to ISO 14040 and 14044 LCA guidelines. Emissions to air, soil, and water will be analyzed, energy and material consumptions will be calculated, and environmental impacts will be assessed and compared with traditional manufacturing processes.
Bahadir, M. E., Lagarrigue, C., & Gonzalez, J. (2022). “Energy Consumption in Extrusion Based Metal Additive Manufacturing” International Journal of Engineering Research and Innovation.