Energy Consumption and Scope 2 Emissions for Fused Deposition Modelling

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a layer-by-layer manufacturing process and gaining importance for applications in digital manufacturing, repair and remanufacturing. Although there are many studies on life cycle assessment in AM, the existing studies do not focus on quantifying Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions which are required for reporting to support net-zero pathway. It is timely to model and optimise additive manufacturing processes for the net-zero carbon agenda. This study discusses energy state monitoring and energy studies to quantify and understand the energy consumption and Scope 2 carbon emissions for fused deposition modelling (FDM) based on the evaluation of the energy states of the FDM machine and energy consumption when printing an exemplar product. The proposed approach can assist manufacturers in identifying key modules of the machine design and process responsible for significant energy consumption, quantifying energy consumption of fused deposition and its contribution to Scope 2 emissions.