Predictive model for environmental assessment in additive manufacturing process

Additive Manufacturing is an innovative way to produce parts. However its environmental impact is unknown. To ensure the development of additive manufacturing processes it seems important to develop the concept of DFSAM (Design for Sustainable Additive Manufacturing). In fact, one of the objectives of environmental sustainable manufacturing is to minimize the whole flux consumption (electricity, material and fluids) during manufacturing step. To achieve this goal, it is interesting to get a predictive model of consumptions, integrated in the design step, allowing to evaluate the product's environmental impact during the manufacturing step. This paper presents a new methodology for electric, fluids and raw material consumptions assessment for additive manufacturing processes, in particular for a direct metal deposition process. The methodology will help engineers to design parts optimized for additive manufacturing with an environmental point of view. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V.