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Review
. 2024 Jul 11;16(14):1986.
doi: 10.3390/polym16141986.

Environmental Impact of Fused Filament Fabrication: What Is Known from Life Cycle Assessment?

Antonella Sola  1 , Roberto Rosa  1 , Anna Maria Ferrari  1
Affiliations
Review

Environmental Impact of Fused Filament Fabrication: What Is Known from Life Cycle Assessment?

Antonella Sola et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

This systematic review interrogates the literature to understand what is known about the environmental sustainability of fused filament fabrication, FFF (also known as fused deposition modeling, FDM), based on life cycle assessment (LCA) results. Since substantial energy demand is systematically addressed as one of the main reasons for ecological damage in FFF, mitigation strategies are often based on reducing the printing time (for example, adopting thicker layers) or the embodied energy per part (e.g., by nesting, which means by printing multiple parts in the same job). A key parameter is the infill degree, which can be adjusted to the application requirements while saving printing time/energy and feedstock material. The adoption of electricity from renewable resources is also expected to boost the sustainability of distributed manufacturing through FFF. Meanwhile, bio-based and recycled materials are being investigated as less impactful alternatives to conventional fossil fuel-based thermoplastic filaments.

Keywords: FDM; FFF; MEX; additive manufacturing; environmental impact; fused deposition modeling; fused filament fabrication; life cycle assessment; material extrusion; sustainability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Popularity of AM technologies according to recent statistics (2022). FFF: fused filament fabrication; SLS: selective laser sintering; MJF: multi-jet fusion; SLA: stereolithography; DLP: digital light processing; DMSL: direct metal laser sintering; SLM: selective laser melting; BJ: binder jetting. Adapted from Sculpteo [11].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Functioning principle of FFF.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Same part is printed with different infill degrees: (a) 0% solid, corresponding to a completely hollow part; (b) 20% solid; (c) 50% solid; (d) 100% solid.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Examples of different infill patterns are (a) rectangular; (b) triangular or diagonal; (c) honeycomb; and (d) wiggle.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Five stages of a product’s life according to the LCA methodology. If “disposal” is replaced by “recycling”, the product’s life trajectory changes from linear to circular.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Four stages are required to complete an LCA.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Workflow followed in this systematic review.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Evolution over time of the literature dedicated to the LCA of FFF.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Stair-stepping effect, printing time, and energy consumption are associated with different values of the layer thickness in FFF.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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