Environmental dimensions of additive manufacturing: mapping application domains and their environmental implications
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...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley for Yale University
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45499/ |
| _version_ | 1848797143949639680 |
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| author | Kellens, Karel Baumers, Martin Gutowski, Timothy G. Flanagan, William Lifset, Reid Duflou, Joost R. |
| author_facet | Kellens, Karel Baumers, Martin Gutowski, Timothy G. Flanagan, William Lifset, Reid Duflou, Joost R. |
| author_sort | Kellens, Karel |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:59:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-45499 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:59:12Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Wiley for Yale University |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-454992020-05-04T18:58:30Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45499/ Environmental dimensions of additive manufacturing: mapping application domains and their environmental implications Kellens, Karel Baumers, Martin Gutowski, Timothy G. Flanagan, William Lifset, Reid Duflou, Joost R. 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. Wiley for Yale University 2017-08-01 Article PeerReviewed Kellens, Karel, Baumers, Martin, Gutowski, Timothy G., Flanagan, William, Lifset, Reid and Duflou, Joost R. (2017) Environmental dimensions of additive manufacturing: mapping application domains and their environmental implications. Journal of Industrial Ecology . ISSN 1530-9290 additive manufacturing energy efficiency industrial ecology resource efficiency sustainability 3D printing http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.12629/abstract doi:10.1111/jiec.12629 doi:10.1111/jiec.12629 |
| spellingShingle | additive manufacturing energy efficiency industrial ecology resource efficiency sustainability 3D printing Kellens, Karel Baumers, Martin Gutowski, Timothy G. Flanagan, William Lifset, Reid Duflou, Joost R. 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 |
| topic | additive manufacturing energy efficiency industrial ecology resource efficiency sustainability 3D printing |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45499/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45499/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45499/ |