Comparative environmental impacts of additive and subtractive manufacturing technologies

Additive manufacturing technologies are opening new opportunities in term of production paradigm and manufacturing possibilities. Nevertheless, in term of environmental impact analysis supplementary research works require to be made in order to compare and evaluate them with traditional manufacturing processes. In this article, we propose to use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method and to associate decision criteria to support the selection of manufacturing strategies for an aeronautic turbine. The dimensionless criteria allow to define environmental trade-offs between additive and subtractive methods. This study provides an approach generalizable to other parts and processes. (C) 2016 CIRP.