Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Additive manufacturing is considered to be of central importance with regard to increasing the sustainability of future product developments and production chains.
Although the production of components using LPBF is often accompanied by reduced material consumption, it leads to a shift in energy and resource consumption within the production process chain compared to conventional production methods, e.g. due to the production of the required metal powder.
A holistic life cycle assessment (LCA) of the LPBF process in the context of the final application and taking into account the influencing variables of the upstream and downstream process steps is therefore necessary for an evaluation of sustainability.
For a holistic view of the life cycle of an LPBF manufactured component, the essential process steps such as powder production, LPBF manufacturing and post-processing up to application and recycling must be investigated.
The process chain is represented in a digital model together with its input and output variables. However, hardly any reliable information is yet available, especially for the LPBF process, so that this must be determined by means of experimental measurements on the systems.
Publications:
Evaluation of the Ecological Footprint for Parts from AlSi10Mg Manufactured by Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Author(s): C. Weiss, C. Boedger, E. Schiefer, D. Heussen, and C.L. Haefner Proceedings of the 33rd Annual International SOLID FREEFORM FABRICATION SYMPOSIUM 2022, p. 921 - 942
Website:
Contact:
Fraunhofer ILT, Christian Weiß, christian.weiss@ilt.fraunhofer.de, 0241/8906-608