Abstract
ABSTRACT Additive manufacturing (AM) has been considered as an alternative to the conventional Subtractive Manufacturing (SM) technique. This research aimed at performing a life cycle assessment (LCA) of an automotive component manufactured by both the proposed manufacturing techniques at changing the volume ratio between the final shape and the initial enveloping billet. The study quantified the required cumulative energy demands (CED) and specific Midpoint and Endpoint indicators. The advantage of SM as a process less environmentally impacting than AM has been observed at least up to a billet mass reduction of 90%. This result is consistent only if the generated chip in the SM process is recycled correctly, otherwise the material’s energy incidence for SM is markedly impacting with a break-even point in between 40% and 80% of the billet’s material reduction. Furthermore, at the growth of the manufacturing phase, the environmental impactful of the production site’ choice starts to be more relevant due to the peculiarity of the countries’ energy sources. Looking at the CED, the environmental impact of petroleum sources is more relevant if compared to nuclear and/or hydroelectric energy sources. Nuclear energy, instead, loses its environmental competitiveness if specific midpoint and endpoint indicators are taken into account.
Published Version
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