Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications
© 2017 The Authors. Journal of Industrial Ecology, published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., on behalf of Yale University. Additive manufacturing (AM) proposes a novel paradigm for engineering design and manufacturing, which has profound economic, environmental, and security implications. The design fre...
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Wiley Blackwell
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119453 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7019-6887 |
| _version_ | 1811071318819340288 |
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| author | Kellens, Karel Baumers, Martin Flanagan, William Lifset, Reid Duflou, Joost R. Gutowski, Timothy G |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Kellens, Karel Baumers, Martin Flanagan, William Lifset, Reid Duflou, Joost R. Gutowski, Timothy G |
| author_sort | Kellens, Karel |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Industrial Ecology, published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., on behalf of Yale University. Additive manufacturing (AM) proposes a novel paradigm for engineering design and manufacturing, which has profound economic, environmental, and security implications. The design freedom offered by this category of manufacturing processes and its ability to locally print almost each designable object will have important repercussions across society. While AM applications are progressing from rapid prototyping to the production of end-use products, the environmental dimensions and related impacts of these evolving manufacturing processes have yet to be extensively examined. Only limited quantitative data are available on how AM manufactured products compare to conventionally manufactured ones in terms of energy and material consumption, transportation costs, pollution and waste, health and safety issues, as well as other environmental impacts over their full lifetime. Reported research indicates that the specific energy of current AM systems is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher compared to that of conventional manufacturing processes. However, only part of the AM process taxonomy is yet documented in terms of its environmental performance, and most life cycle inventory (LCI) efforts mainly focus on energy consumption. From an environmental perspective, AM manufactured parts can be beneficial for very small batches, or in cases where AM-based redesigns offer substantial functional advantages during the product use phase (e.g., lightweight part designs and part remanufacturing). Important pending research questions include the LCI of AM feedstock production, supply-chain consequences, and health and safety issues relating to AM. Keywords: additive manufacturing; energy efficiency; industrial ecology; resource efficiency; sustainability; 3D printing |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:49:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/119453 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:49:17Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Wiley Blackwell |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1194532022-09-30T11:31:13Z Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications Kellens, Karel Baumers, Martin Flanagan, William Lifset, Reid Duflou, Joost R. Gutowski, Timothy G Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Gutowski, Timothy G © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Industrial Ecology, published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., on behalf of Yale University. Additive manufacturing (AM) proposes a novel paradigm for engineering design and manufacturing, which has profound economic, environmental, and security implications. The design freedom offered by this category of manufacturing processes and its ability to locally print almost each designable object will have important repercussions across society. While AM applications are progressing from rapid prototyping to the production of end-use products, the environmental dimensions and related impacts of these evolving manufacturing processes have yet to be extensively examined. Only limited quantitative data are available on how AM manufactured products compare to conventionally manufactured ones in terms of energy and material consumption, transportation costs, pollution and waste, health and safety issues, as well as other environmental impacts over their full lifetime. Reported research indicates that the specific energy of current AM systems is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher compared to that of conventional manufacturing processes. However, only part of the AM process taxonomy is yet documented in terms of its environmental performance, and most life cycle inventory (LCI) efforts mainly focus on energy consumption. From an environmental perspective, AM manufactured parts can be beneficial for very small batches, or in cases where AM-based redesigns offer substantial functional advantages during the product use phase (e.g., lightweight part designs and part remanufacturing). Important pending research questions include the LCI of AM feedstock production, supply-chain consequences, and health and safety issues relating to AM. Keywords: additive manufacturing; energy efficiency; industrial ecology; resource efficiency; sustainability; 3D printing 2018-12-07T14:29:10Z 2018-12-07T14:29:10Z 2017-08 2018-11-28T18:15:58Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 10881980 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119453 Kellens, Karel et al. “Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications.” Journal of Industrial Ecology 21, S1 (August 2017): S49–S68 © 2017 The Authors https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7019-6887 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/JIEC.12629 Journal of Industrial Ecology Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Wiley Blackwell Wiley |
| spellingShingle | Kellens, Karel Baumers, Martin Flanagan, William Lifset, Reid Duflou, Joost R. Gutowski, Timothy G Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications |
| title | Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications |
| title_full | Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications |
| title_fullStr | Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications |
| title_short | Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing: Mapping Application Domains and Their Environmental Implications |
| title_sort | environmental dimensions of additive manufacturing mapping application domains and their environmental implications |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119453 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7019-6887 |
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