Environmental performance of additive manufacturing process – an overview
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 12 October 2018
Issue publication date: 18 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to overview the literature about the environmental performance of additive manufacturing (AM) and to evaluate the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) on these studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was based on the systematic literature review.
Findings
The investigation found that most authors were concerned about the energy consumption of the AM equipment, which is the subject studied by 87% of articles. In addition, 25% of the studies used LCA at least in some level, making a global environment assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts of AM. By analyzing research studies, it was possible to find signs that AM could be a lower environmental impact process, when compared with traditional manufacturing. However, this assumption is not valid in all cases because there are many variables that may affect environmental results.
Originality/value
Due to the increase on the usage of this type of technology by industries, studies on the environmental performance of this process became relevant.
Keywords
Citation
Garcia, F.L., Moris, V.A.d.S., Nunes, A.O. and Silva, D.A.L. (2018), "Environmental performance of additive manufacturing process – an overview", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 24 No. 7, pp. 1166-1177. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-05-2017-0108
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited