Environmental comparison of MESO-CLAD® process and conventional machining implementing life cycle assessment

Direct digital manufacturing: definition, evolution, and sustainability implications

“…DDM can reduce carbon footprint by reducing: raw materials; energy intensive and wasteful process such as casting; fuel consumption from transport-related product and reduce distance of parts to the consumer location. Serres et al (2011) conducted LCA for each step of direct additive laser manufacturing and found that it has 80% less single score value than machining process due to the absence of chips production. Atomisation is the major cause of the environmental impact as it is used for powder elaboration process.…”

Life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to the process industry: a review

“…LCA applied to process can also adopt a "cradle-to-gate" approach, which means that the study stops at the gate of the factory: the manufacturing product end of life of is not considered. For example, Serres et al (2011) presented a detailed study on a direct additive laser manufacturing process, which allows the direct manufacturing of small parts with complex shapes, giving equivalent properties as conventional machining or casting techniques. They built their study on the fabrication of a selected titanium pieces, and this allows comparing this new process with a more classical one (machining), showing the environmental benefice of the laser manufacturing process.…”

Additive Manufacturing: Making Imagination the Major Limitation

“…The results have indicated that AM has a 70% lower total environmental impact than conventional machining. 5 Regarding cost benefits, a different study has recently projected that more than $2.5 million savings in fuel costs per year can be achieved through 50-80% weight reduction of metal brackets in an aircraft using AM technology. 6 GE has also achieved up to 25% reduction in production time and cost savings, without sacrificing performance, using additive technologies on an industrial scale.…”