Potential for absolute sustainability of Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing: A boat propellers case

The industry sector has high carbon emissions with a large contribution stemming from metals manufacturing. There is an increasing interest in additive manufacturing (AM) as a manufacturing technique for lean manufacturing and circular economy (CE), but can it become environmentally sustainable? We propose a holistic framework to investigate future resource-use efficiency and environmental impact potentials of AM for metal object production and demonstrate it on an industrial case. The framework has shown potential in highlighting trade-offs in choosing the best CE strategies and manufacturing technology. The most promising CE strategies, in this case, were improved propulsive efficiency and closed-loop recycling.