Resource Criticality & Prospective LCA of Metal Additive Manufacturing: Materials, Processes and Circularity Scenarios

Main Presenter:    Anastasia Greget 

Co-Authors:   Olivier Talon     Axel Hemberg                                          

Metal additive manufacturing consists in producing parts by adding material layer by layer from a digital model. This technology offers strong potential in terms of design freedom, functional integration, and material resource optimization. Despite these advantages, its large-scale industrial deployment remains limited by several barriers, including the availability of suitable materials, the robustness and controllability of processes, and the environmental performance of the entire value chain. These challenges make additive manufacturing a particularly relevant field for life-cycle-oriented innovation approaches.

In this context, the Wi³NING project aims to develop innovative materials and alloys for additive manufacturing that meet industrial requirements in terms of performance and sustainability. The project explicitly integrates life cycle assessment (LCA) as a decision-support tool from the early stages of research and development, focusing on technologies with maturity levels ranging from TRL 3 to 6.

This contribution presents a prospective LCA covering the entire value chain, within a material circularity perspective. Life cycle inventories are modeled in a modular way in order to compare different additive manufacturing technologies under development, as well as multiple scenarios: technological processes (additive, subtractive, or hybrid), feedstock origins (virgin or recycled materials), and contrasting use scenarios (component repair versus replacement). The proposed framework combines a comprehensive environmental assessment with a specific focus on resource criticality, particularly for designed alloys containing rare earth elements. This work is based on industrial case studies, providing concrete illustrations of the application of LCA methods to real-world design and technology selection situations.

The results highlight the potential of additive manufacturing to improve material efficiency, extend component lifetime, and enhance functional performance, while also emphasizing the environmental trade-offs associated with resource availability constraints and additional processing steps. Overall, this study demonstrates the relevance of integrating prospective LCA into R&D projects to guide the development of more sustainable metal additive manufacturing technologies.

©2026 Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation e.V. | Contact Us | Legal Info

CONTACT US

If you would like to get in touch with us, please feel free to send us a message. Thank you very much in advance.

Sending

Log in with your credentials

or    

Forgot your details?

Create Account