97
Protection and Restoration
3. Consumer/Prosumer
4. End of Life
The authors state that at the design stage, a clear advantage of AM in environmental aspects is the opportunity to produce more complex and optimized components
with reduced number of joining and assembling operations. Its higher flexibility than
in traditional manufacturing improves the product development cycle, reducing the
overall time and cost and improving human interaction. However, the geometric
freedom of products is limited by operational requirements and process constraints.
In some cases, as indicated by Garashchenko and Rucki (2020), a part decomposition procedure must be performed in order to ensure efficient use of the AM machine
workspace and to provide savings of material and energy.
In the production phase, three main aspects should be considered (Sanchez et al.,
2020): (1) resource consumption, (2) waste management, and (3) pollution control.
In respect of the resource consumption, the energy consumed by AM equipment
and auxiliary subsystems and material consumption are lower than that of traditional processes. Considering the waste management, the layer-by-layer manufacturing principle certainly improves material yields, i.e., ratio of final product weight to
input material weight. Additive manufacturing seems to represent an opportunity to
implement the roadmap to zero waste manufacturing through development of direct
digital manufacturing. However, examples of waste include unused and unusable
powdery materials, waste generated by unexpected defects, and supporting structures necessary in some 3D printing processes. Finally, as far as the pollution control
is concerned, AM uses fewer auxiliary harmful chemicals than conventional manufacturing, where forging lubricants, cutting fluids, or casting release compounds are
usually necessary.
In the consumer phase, adoption and diffusion of additive manufacturing by different communities have resulted in a growing interest in personal fabrication, doit-yourself (DIY), and peer-to-peer practices in open spaces (Sanchez et al., 2020).
It can be stated that capacities of digital manufacturing are undergoing a democratization process and widespread use of the technology, which allows private and
industrial users to design and produce their own goods in the framework of the ‘prosumer’ concept (the merged words ‘producer’ and ‘consumer’ underline the changing perspective of a more home-focused general economy). In the prosumer context,
four drivers are to promote environmental sustainability in personal fabrication: (1)
product longevity, (2) co-design, (3) local production, and (4) technology affordance.
Nevertheless, lack of knowledge about AM has some impact on the social and environmental aspects, since AM practitioners might not be aware of the environmental
dimensions when choosing an AM technology (Sanchez et al., 2020). It can be added
after Pfähler et al. (2019) that within the post-production stage, during product use
and application, associated with service and reconditioning, AM can be used for
manufacturing of spare parts and repair of wearing parts well before they reach EoL
stage.
The end-of-life (EoL) stage attempts to close the product lifecycle loop and in AM
it can be achieved at different levels. A key feature is repair and maintenance ability
Protection and Restoration
3. Consumer/Prosumer
4. End of Life
The authors state that at the design stage, a clear advantage of AM in environmental aspects is the opportunity to produce more complex and optimized components
with reduced number of joining and assembling operations. Its higher flexibility than
in traditional manufacturing improves the product development cycle, reducing the
overall time and cost and improving human interaction. However, the geometric
freedom of products is limited by operational requirements and process constraints.
In some cases, as indicated by Garashchenko and Rucki (2020), a part decomposition procedure must be performed in order to ensure efficient use of the AM machine
workspace and to provide savings of material and energy.
In the production phase, three main aspects should be considered (Sanchez et al.,
2020): (1) resource consumption, (2) waste management, and (3) pollution control.
In respect of the resource consumption, the energy consumed by AM equipment
and auxiliary subsystems and material consumption are lower than that of traditional processes. Considering the waste management, the layer-by-layer manufacturing principle certainly improves material yields, i.e., ratio of final product weight to
input material weight. Additive manufacturing seems to represent an opportunity to
implement the roadmap to zero waste manufacturing through development of direct
digital manufacturing. However, examples of waste include unused and unusable
powdery materials, waste generated by unexpected defects, and supporting structures necessary in some 3D printing processes. Finally, as far as the pollution control
is concerned, AM uses fewer auxiliary harmful chemicals than conventional manufacturing, where forging lubricants, cutting fluids, or casting release compounds are
usually necessary.
In the consumer phase, adoption and diffusion of additive manufacturing by different communities have resulted in a growing interest in personal fabrication, doit-yourself (DIY), and peer-to-peer practices in open spaces (Sanchez et al., 2020).
It can be stated that capacities of digital manufacturing are undergoing a democratization process and widespread use of the technology, which allows private and
industrial users to design and produce their own goods in the framework of the ‘prosumer’ concept (the merged words ‘producer’ and ‘consumer’ underline the changing perspective of a more home-focused general economy). In the prosumer context,
four drivers are to promote environmental sustainability in personal fabrication: (1)
product longevity, (2) co-design, (3) local production, and (4) technology affordance.
Nevertheless, lack of knowledge about AM has some impact on the social and environmental aspects, since AM practitioners might not be aware of the environmental
dimensions when choosing an AM technology (Sanchez et al., 2020). It can be added
after Pfähler et al. (2019) that within the post-production stage, during product use
and application, associated with service and reconditioning, AM can be used for
manufacturing of spare parts and repair of wearing parts well before they reach EoL
stage.
The end-of-life (EoL) stage attempts to close the product lifecycle loop and in AM
it can be achieved at different levels. A key feature is repair and maintenance ability