Evaluation of Environmental Sustainability for Additive Manufacturing Batch Production

Additive manufacturing (AM), owning to the unique layer-by-layer manufacturing method and its associated advantages, has been implemented in a great number of industries. To further expand the AM applications, the current low throughput of AM system needs to be improved. Consequently, the batch production method, where multiple parts are fabricated in one batch, has gained increasing research interest. In the current state of literature, most research efforts assess the batch production approach based on its manufacturing cost saving potential. Nevertheless, environmental sustainability, serving as a critical part in AM development, is less explored. Environmental sustainability of AM batch production needs to be thoroughly investigated and assessed, due to the potential environmental impacts and human health risks that AM batch production activities might cause. This research aims to advance the state-of-the-art on environmental sustainability evaluation for AM batch production, by experimentally comparing three main environmental sustainability aspects (i.e., energy consumption, emission, and material waste) for batch production processes with different batch sizes. Based on the experimental results, the feasibility of batch production method for AM is discussed. The outcomes of this research will help evaluate the AM batch production method from an environmental sustainability standpoint, and facilitate the development of AM batch production.