Abstract

In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) processes have gained traction in the manufacturing industry. Using AM, parts and components made of metals, polymers, composites and more recently, ceramics can be manufactured directly from a 3D CAD file. Customization, complexity, light weighting, material saving and waste reduction as well as reducing lead time are among some of the advantages of AM. However, AM has some limitations compared to traditional manufacturing (TM) processes, including accessibility to the raw material, mass production and energy consumption per part or per kg of products. In this research, energy consumption of metal AM processes is investigated and compared with energy consumption of some high energy consuming traditional manufacturing processes such as sand and investment casting. This research indicates manufacturing stainless-steel parts by AM processes such as Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing (ADAM) are accompanied by higher yield compared with TM processes. However, they consume in the range of 15-30 kWh/kg more energy than casting processes.
Keywords: Additive Manufacturing, Traditional Manufacturing, Energy Consumption, Casting