Note on the Rate and Energy Efficiency Limits for Additive Manufacturing. (9th October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gutowski, Timothy; Jiang, Sheng; Cooper, Daniel; Corman, Gero; Hausmann, Michael; Manson, Jan‐Anders; Schudeleit, Timo; Wegener, Konrad; Sabelle, Matias; Ramos‐Grez, Jorge; Sekulic, Dusan P.
• Is Part Of: Journal of industrial ecology. Volume 21(2017)Supplement 1
• Page Start: S69
• Page End: S79
• Publication Date: 2017-10-09
• Subjects: 3D printing -- additive manufacturing -- energy efficiency -- industrial ecology -- manufacturing -- production rate; Industrial ecology -- Periodicals; Product life cycle -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Industrial management -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Écologie industrielle -- Périodiques; 658.56
• DOI: 10.1111/jiec.12664
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1088-1980

Abstract

Summary: We review the process rates and energy intensities of various additive processing technologies and focus on recent progress in improving these metrics for laser powder bed fusion processing of metals, and filament and pellet extrusion processing of polymers and composites. Over the last decade, observed progress in raw build rates has been quite substantial, with laser metal processes improving by about 1 order of magnitude, and polymer extrusion processes by more than 2 orders of magnitude. We develop simple heat transfer models that explain these improvements, point to other possible strategies for improvement, and highlight rate limits. We observe a pattern in laser metal technologies that mimics the development of machine tools; an efficiency plateau, where faster rates require more power with no change in energy nor rate efficiency.