Environmental aspects of laser-based and conventional tool and die manufacturing

Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) technologies such as Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) have made it possible to eliminate environmentally polluting supply chain activities in the tooling industry and to repair and remanufacture valuable tools and dies. In this article, we investigate three case studies to reveal the extent to which DMD-based manufacturing of molds and dies can currently achieve reduced environmental emissions and energy consumption relative to conventional manufacturing pathways. It is shown that DMD's greatest opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of tool and die manufacturing will come from its ability to enable remanufacturing. Laser-based remanufacturing of tooling is shown to reduce cost and environmental impact simultaneously, especially as the scale of the tool increases. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.