Framework to Predict the Environmental Impact of Additive Manufacturing in the Life Cycle of a Commercial Vehicle

Adding layer after layer of material is the operating principle of Additive Manufacturing (AM) and has the potential to change fundamental conditions in all phases of the product life cycle. AM implications such as design freedom allow the optimization of product properties such as weight or efficiency to achieve a better life cycle performance. Considering AM implications for highly utilized products such as commercial vehicles may have big sustainable impacts if fuel consumption can be reduced. Thereby manufacturers are challenged to implement new manufacturing technologies that enable sustainable products and production. The objective of this article is to provide guidance for manufacturers to decrease the environmental impact of their product through manufacturing components with AM. Therefore a framework is presented to identify components with potential for improvement and to predict the required improvement to decrease the environmental impact with AM.