On the modelling of Cradle-to-Gate sustainability of different AM technologies for the production of plastic components

The present document corresponds to the final academic step to be taken in the framework of a Master’s degree program at Politecnico di Torino. It requires the student to perform a high-level research work focused on exploring and obtaining valuable conclusions about topics that are particularly interesting for scientific community because of their importance for industry, environment and society. In case of the present candidate, proposed research work is aimed at analyzing different production techniques belonging to Additive Manufacturing technology by way of estimating their environmental burden, specifically, in terms of the cumulative energy demand (CED). Indeed, a comprehensive cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) has been accomplished by considering different process aspects such as direct electricity consumption and material usage efficiency of main and complementary process steps. In order to feed proposed models with reliable data, specific results from numerous sustainability studies available in current literature have been considered. By way of conclusion, FDM and SLS modelling results have been compared to previous Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) referential energy values provided by the recent literature. The effect of several modelling parameters has been analyzed in depth, in order to identify the main drivers affecting the cradle-to-gate primary energy requirement.