Towards a Sustainable Polymer Additive Manufacturing: Materials, Equipment, Methods, Characterization, Monitoring, Recyclability, and Socioeconomic Aspects

The rapid advancement of additive manufacturing (AM), as for example powder bed fusion (PBF), has revolutionized industries ranging from aerospace to healthcare. Since AM continues to expand and is predicted to dominate the future market, it offers immense potential to reduce waste, energy consumption, and overall environmental footprint. However, despite all its advantages, there is growing concern over the sustainability of AM, since it is currently a serious bottleneck that hinders the sustainable transition of manufacturing. Examples of these challenges revolve around material degradation, low reusability and minimal recyclability, and long-term instability of printed parts. All these need to be one by one systematically addressed in order to allow for a transition into a sustainable AM ecosystem.

The proposed Research Topic aims to address the challenge of lack of research regarding any potential material degradation in AM, focus in on methods that are predicted to dominate the industry in the near future, i.e. powder bed fusion and stereolithography, or other laser systems. The effect of the manufacturing process on the material has an impact on both part performance, as well as the environmental pillar of the sustainability of AM. Current printing materials often alter their properties during printing or under environmental conditions, reducing their lifespan and generating waste. To achieve sustainability, we need to understand degradation mechanisms, aging, as well as other impactful processes on the materials, in order to be able to create waste-free polymer AM processes. By fostering innovation in sustainable materials and recycling practices, this research topic will contribute to reducing the environmental impact of polymer AM, promoting circular economy principles, and ensuring sustainability in manufacturing.

We invite investigators to contribute articles of original research, as well as review articles. An indicative but not exclusive list of topics is as follows:

- Novel sustainable design for AM
- Powder degradation and performance studies
- Recyclability and reusability in AM
- Improving efficiency and energy consumption in AM
- Circular economy for AM
- Novel materials for sustainable AM
- Socioeconomic studies for AM
- AM for addressing the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- AM for decarbonization
- AM for just transitions of SMEs in decarbonization
- Characterization tools and techniques for sustainability of AM
- Characterization of powders and prints for sustainability