Additive Manufacturing for Repair and Restoration in Remanufacturing: An Overview from Object Design and Systems Perspectives

Repair and restoration is an important step in remanufacturing as it ensures end-of-life products are returned to as-new condition before entering the subsequent life cycle. Currently, such processes are carried out manually by skilled workers. The advent of additive manufacturing (AM) has encouraged researchers to investigate its potential in automated repair and restoration, thus rendering it as a more effective method for remanufacturing. However, the application of this widespread technology for repair and restoration in remanufacturing is still new. This paper provides an overview of the principles and capabilities offered by the existing metal AM technology for object repair and restoration namely, direct energy deposition, powder bed fusion, and cold spray technology. Their applications in the repair and restoration of remanufacturable components are presented and discussed along with issues requiring attention from the perspectives of object design and process systems capabilities. The study provides a compilation of the challenges in AM repair and restoration, which primarily lie in the aspects of geometrical complexity, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, material compatibility, and pre-processing requirements since it is critical for remanufacturing to restore end-of-life components to as new-condition. The paper concludes with suggestions for further works in AM restoration to enable product life cycle extension in the circular economy.