Metal Additive Manufacturing Conference - MAMC 2023

Additive manufacturing has long since become an essential tool in modern production processes, with an increasing focus on quality assurance and resource-efficient application. Technological advancements aim to increase manufacturing speed, batch size, quality, and ease of handling.
Despite a growing awareness of environmental and climate protection, increased customer interest in climate-friendly resource-saving products, and rising energy prices, resource efficiency in additive manufacturing is often only considered in passing. However, metal additive manufacturing offers immense potential. This study uses standardized tensile test specimens to analyze the energy demand, materials, and manufacturing machines in real processes, examining manufacturing density, orientation, and packing density within the build volume. The results reveal a strong dependency of energy demand on process time and the utilized manufacturing system.
This information can be used to derive specific recommendations for the manufacturing system, production parameters, and energetic optimizations through adapted design, packing density, and orientation within the build space. Additionally, the material flows, and processes surrounding the actual manufacturing offer numerous optimization potentials.
The extended degrees of freedom provided by AM, coupled with a design methodology tailored for MAM, result in a high degree of innovation and vast energy-saving potential. Further savings and recycling potentials exist for the production materials used, such as metal powders, energy, and inert gas, although recycling is currently only envisioned for the material itself. A long-term goal is the optimization and prediction of resource requirements in additive manufacturing concerning the complete product life cycle.