Production Technology Comparison between Additive Manufacturing and Injection Moulding through Life Cycle Assessment

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is increasingly adopted into manufacturing context mainly due its capabilities to produce very complex components in a more cost-effective way. Today more than ever, the environmental sustainability is an aspect not to be neglected. The aim of the research was to evaluate the potentials of AM technologies in terms of environmental sustainability by exploiting the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. This study investigates the environmental impacts of the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and compared them with those deriving from the injection moulding process. In this study, the LCA has been applied to a section of the product life cycle, the so-called from cradle to gate approach. The LCA is a well-established quantitative method, governed by ISO 14040’s, for modelling the life cycle of a product and assessing its environmental impacts; it considers all the resources, e.g. energy and material, taken by each individual phase. The standardized steps of the LCA have been carried out using the software OPEN LCA® . A multi-scenario analysis has been conducted in order to assess the role of the production volume, the parts’ geometrical complexity in determining the environmental impacts. Since AM seems to have further technology development, a future scenario has been also implemented by improving some process parameters.