Influence of the Use/User Profile in the LCA of 3d Printed Products

Personal Fabrication (PF) is becoming more popular each day and as all disruptive technology, its environmental impacts are still little known. A number of authors have tried to compare PF and Industrial Manufacturing (IM) using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) but, opposite results are found among these studies. This paper presents another study that compared PF and IM using LCA. The findings suggest that this comparison is debatable and that, besides the technical aspects, an important issue has to be considered in the LCA of 3d-printed products: the use/user profile. Conclusions show that 3d-printing use/user profile has a direct and important participation in the whole of environmental impacts of printed products and that any LCA of PF that neglects these aspects seems to be incomplete and debatable.