Research needs and recommendations on environmental implications of additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as “three-dimensional (3D) printing,” is the process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer by layer. AM provides a cost-effective and time-efficient way to fabricate products with complicated geometries and advanced material properties and functionality. Based on the 2014 National Science Foundation (NSF) Workshop on Environmental Implications of Additive Manufacturing, this paper outlines potential environmental implications of AM related to key issues including energy use, occupational health, waste, lifecycle impact, and cross-cutting and policy issues, in terms of their current state-of-the-art, research needs, and recommendations, respectively.