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Cited by 27Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing TechnologiesSustainable Supply Chain ManagementDigital Transformation in Industry

Unpacking Additive Manufacturing Challenges and Opportunities in Moving towards Sustainability: An Exploratory Study

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Liu, Wen, Liu, Xielin, Liu, Ying, Wang, Jie, Evans, Steve, Yang, Miying·2023·Sustainability
DOI 10.3390/su15043827
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Abstract

The global market for Additive Manufacturing (AM) is expected to grow, which may increase the prominence of sustainability aspects in the manufacturing process. A growing number of AM academics and practitioners have started to pay attention to the environmental and societal impacts of AM instead of only focusing on its economic aspect. Yet, AM is still not widely adopted, and the research on AM sustainability is still at the nascent stage. This paper aims to better understand AM’s sustainable adoption and seeks to address three questions: what the sustainability implications of AM are; what challenges may prevent the broad adoption of AM; and what opportunities can enable AM sustainability. The research adopts a multiple case study method to investigate six AM companies that play different roles in the AM ecosystem, including AM design, AM machine, AM material, AM service, AM education, and AM consulting. The results from these studies reveal that AM has the potential to reduce environmental and social impacts; however, it might also cause negative consequences and lead to some rebound effects. We identified 43 categories (synthesized from 199 examples) of key challenges for AM adoption and proposed 55 key solutions in moving AM towards sustainability. It is evident that AM acts as a promising digital technology for manufacturing and has the potential to pave the way for a new era of sustainable manufacturing.

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  • Some evidence suggests that additive manufacturing energy consumption may exceed that of casting and injection molding processes.

    “However, AM does not completely eliminate waste generation, and some evidence suggests that its energy consumption may exceed that of casting and injection molding processes [44,45].”

    From Towards Sustainability in Hydraulic Machinery Manufacturing by 3D Printing (2024) · cites this paper as [44]

  • Additive manufacturing does not completely eliminate waste generation.

    “However, AM does not completely eliminate waste generation, and some evidence suggests that its energy consumption may exceed that of casting and injection molding processes [44,45].”

    From Towards Sustainability in Hydraulic Machinery Manufacturing by 3D Printing (2024) · cites this paper as [44]

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Liu, W., Liu, X., Liu, Y., Wang, J., Evans, S., & Yang, M.
Affiliations
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • Cranfield University (GB)
Corresponding author
  • Evans, Steve
  • Yang, Miying
ORCID
Venue
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2023-02-20
Volume
15
Issue
4
Pages
3827
ISSN
2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/su15043827
OpenAlex
W4321373334
Cited by
27
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3
FWCI
1.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • CERES (Cranfield University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Apollo
Funders
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (71932009, 72272140, EP/I033351/1)
  • EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability (71932009, 72272140, EP/I033351/1)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering › Digital Transformation in Industry
Keywords
additive manufacturing, sustainable manufacturing, environmental impact, social impact, barriers to adoption, rebound effect, sustainable design, sustainable materials

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