Resource Consumption of Additive Manufacturing Technology

Abstract: The degradation of natural resources as a result of consumption to support the economic growth of humans society represents one of the greatest sustainability challenges. In order to allow economic growth to continue in a sustainable way, it has to be decoupled from the consumption and destruction of natural resources. This thesis focuses on an innovative manufacturing technology called additive manufacturing (AM) and its potential to become a more efficient and cleaner manufacturing alternative. The thesis also investigates the benefits of accessing the technology through the result-oriented Product-Service Systems (PSS) approach. The outcome of the study is the quantification of raw materials and energy consumption. The scope of study is the application of AM in the scale model kit industry. The methods used are the life cycle inventory study and the system dynamics modeling. The result shows that AM has higher efficiency in terms of raw material usage, however it also has higher energy consumption in comparison to the more traditional manufacturing techniques. The result-oriented PSS approach is shown to be able to reduce the amount of manufacturing equipment needed, thus reducing the energy and raw materials used to produce the equipment, but does not completely decouple economic growth from the consumption of natural resources.