An Experimental Study on the Energy Consumption and Emission Profile of Fused Deposition Modeling Process

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is widely considered as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional processes. However, AM processes are not free of environmental impacts: they consume material and energy while emitting particulates and/or volatile organic compounds. Although there are efforts on characterizing energy consumption and air borne emissions, in depth analysis and understanding are generally lacking when compared with traditional processes, especially machining processes. Using fused deposition modeling (FDM) process as an example, this study explores how operating procedure and printing parameters affect the energy consumption and particulates emissions. Experimental data suggests that particle emission is mainly the result of condensing and agglomerating of semi-volatile organic compounds. The initial emission spike occurs when there is dripping of semi-liquid filament from heated nozzle and/or there is residue left in the nozzle. Printing speed and material flow have effects on particle emission rate but the effect is small. Power profile analysis indicates that print bed heating and temperature maintaining is the leading contributor to energy consumption.