Enhancing the process sustainability of metal additive manufacturing: a proposal of design framework applied to filament fusion fabrication with metal injection molding

The environmental impacts generated by manufacturing processes have become a concern, as underlined by regulation controls. Studies tend to focus on optimization of the processes through process parameter refinement to try to reduce energy consumption and raw material consumption. However, a thorough assessment of the building of a component linked to its use should be performed to help decision making. The focus of this paper is to define a methodology that helps the choice of the process parameters since the first design steps, by assessing this choice on the mechanical properties and thus the global environmental impact of the manufactured component. To do so, a case study is applied to a given additive manufacturing technology combining metal injection molding and fused filament fabrication. This combination is part of the additive manufacturing processes involving material extrusion.