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Additive manufacturing technology potential: a cleaner manufacturing alternative

Kianian, Babak LU and Larsson, Tobias C LU (2015) ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference 4.
Abstract
This paper focuses on an emerging manufacturing technology called Additive Manufacturing (AM) and its potential to become a more efficient and cleaner manufacturing alternative. This work is built around selected case companies, where the benefit of AM compared to other more traditional technologies is studied through the comparison of resource consumption. The resource consumption is defined as raw materials and energy input. The scope of this work is the application of AM in the scale model kit industry. The method used is the life cycle inventory study, which is a subtype of life cycle assessment (LCA). The result of the paper is the quantification of raw materials and energy consumption. The outcomes shows that AM has higher efficiency... (More)
This paper focuses on an emerging manufacturing technology called Additive Manufacturing (AM) and its potential to become a more efficient and cleaner manufacturing alternative. This work is built around selected case companies, where the benefit of AM compared to other more traditional technologies is studied through the comparison of resource consumption. The resource consumption is defined as raw materials and energy input. The scope of this work is the application of AM in the scale model kit industry. The method used is the life cycle inventory study, which is a subtype of life cycle assessment (LCA). The result of the paper is the quantification of raw materials and energy consumption. The outcomes shows that AM has higher efficiency in terms of materials usage, as a higher proportion of materials ending up in the final product. Injection Molding (IM), on the other hand, wastes a significant proportion of raw materials in components that are not part of the final product. If the same or similar raw materials are used in both manufacturing methods, the advantage is clearly with AM. However, AM has higher energy consumption in comparison to the injection molding technique (IM). In terms of energy consumption, AM only has an advantage in this area when working with a very low production volume. The analysis of the energy consumption shows that most of the energy used in AM is to create the final product, while IM only uses a fraction of the total energy to produce the final product. AM technologies are still very new but have the potential for development and reduction of energy consumption in the future. Added to this potential is the higher materials usage efficiency of AM, which reduce the waste of materials and the energy, embedded in them. These two factors are likely to position AM as cleaner manufacturing alternative. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Manufacturing, Additive Manufacturing
host publication
ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference : 20th Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference - 20th Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference
volume
4
pages
10 pages
publisher
American Society Of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
conference name
ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference
conference location
Boston, United States
conference dates
2015-08-02 - 2015-08-05
external identifiers
  • scopus:84979010292
ISBN
978-0-7918-5711-3
DOI
10.1115/DETC2015-46075
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
139e7e44-9d22-4027-93c0-03ac2e09d96d
date added to LUP
2016-12-15 15:29:48
date last changed
2024-05-03 16:28:37
@inproceedings{139e7e44-9d22-4027-93c0-03ac2e09d96d,
  abstract     = {{This paper focuses on an emerging manufacturing technology called Additive Manufacturing (AM) and its potential to become a more efficient and cleaner manufacturing alternative. This work is built around selected case companies, where the benefit of AM compared to other more traditional technologies is studied through the comparison of resource consumption. The resource consumption is defined as raw materials and energy input. The scope of this work is the application of AM in the scale model kit industry. The method used is the life cycle inventory study, which is a subtype of life cycle assessment (LCA). The result of the paper is the quantification of raw materials and energy consumption. The outcomes shows that AM has higher efficiency in terms of materials usage, as a higher proportion of materials ending up in the final product. Injection Molding (IM), on the other hand, wastes a significant proportion of raw materials in components that are not part of the final product. If the same or similar raw materials are used in both manufacturing methods, the advantage is clearly with AM. However, AM has higher energy consumption in comparison to the injection molding technique (IM). In terms of energy consumption, AM only has an advantage in this area when working with a very low production volume. The analysis of the energy consumption shows that most of the energy used in AM is to create the final product, while IM only uses a fraction of the total energy to produce the final product. AM technologies are still very new but have the potential for development and reduction of energy consumption in the future. Added to this potential is the higher materials usage efficiency of AM, which reduce the waste of materials and the energy, embedded in them. These two factors are likely to position AM as cleaner manufacturing alternative.}},
  author       = {{Kianian, Babak and Larsson, Tobias C}},
  booktitle    = {{ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference : 20th Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference}},
  isbn         = {{978-0-7918-5711-3}},
  keywords     = {{Manufacturing; Additive Manufacturing}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{American Society Of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)}},
  title        = {{Additive manufacturing technology potential: a cleaner manufacturing alternative}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/DETC2015-46075}},
  doi          = {{10.1115/DETC2015-46075}},
  volume       = {{4}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}