The transition from Injection Moulding to FDM: : A Framework for Sustaibility Analysis

Abstract: Additive manufacturing is a growing manufacturing technology that has lately transcended from mostly being used in prototype manufacturing to be used in conventional production. The transition has occurred with, among other technologies, Fused Deposit Modelling (FDM), developed by Stratasys for plastic manufacturing. The interest in replacing conventional methods (which for plastic is injection moulding) is increasing in Sweden and at the same time the demand for a more sustainable production increases. We have in this thesis managed to adapt a general framework for sustainability analysis with 31 indicators to a framework, for the analysis of the transition from injection moulding to FDM, with only 8 relevant indicators. This process was conduced through first establishing what sustainability is and mapped both production processes. Afterwards was the differences in the production processes analysed in regards to the general framework for sustainability analysis and a new framework, was created. Finally we analysed how firm management views frameworks for sustainability analysis, how they use them and how our framework complements the wrongful use that sometimes occur today.