A design framework for sustainable manufacturing using Additive Manufacturing Processes

Additive manufacturing has been promoted as a sustainable and environmentally friendly manufacturing process. However, in some cases, industries still choose conventional manufacturing processes, such as injection molding, for its lower costs, especially in the case of large batches. In this work, a carbon footprint framework is presented, where additive manufacturing processes are compared with conventional processes, to define which is the most environmentally friendly, under which conditions and how this affects the manufacturability of the product. This framework is applied in producing a protective case for a mobile phone, to determine the applicability of the framework.