Awarded with the CIRP LCE2017 Best Paper "LEO" award.While additive manufacturing applications are progressing from rapid prototyping to the production of end-use products, the environmental impacts caused by these manufacturing processes and related material flows are still a rather open question. Therefore, this paper will provide an overview of available life cycle inventory data and compare the environmental impact caused by a series of additive manufacturing processes: selective laser melting, selective laser sintering, electron beam melting, fused deposition modelling and stereolithography. Next to the energy and resource consumption of the AM unit processes itself also the impact caused during the (powder) material production and part post treatment are addressed. From environmental perspective it’s clear that the additional generated impacts during manufacturing should be compensated by functional improvements during the use phase of the AM manufactured part. As example, the case of lightweight components is discussed.status: publishe

This article summarizes the energy savings and environmental impacts of using traditional and bio-based fiber-reinforced polymer composites in place of conventional metal-based structures in a range of applications. In addition to reviewing technical achievements in improving material properties, we quantify the environmental impacts of the materials over the complete product life cycle, from material production through use and end of life, using life-cycle assessment (LCA).