Additive manufacturing for circular product design: A literature review from a design perspective

Sauerwein, M.; Bakker, C.A.; Balkenende, R.

doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-820-4-358

Additive manufacturing for circular product design

Title

Additive manufacturing for circular product design: A literature review from a design perspective

Author

Sauerwein, M. (TU Delft Circular Product Design)
Bakker, C.A. (TU Delft Circular Product Design)
Balkenende, R. (TU Delft Circular Product Design)

Contributor

Bakker, C. (editor)
Mugge, R. (editor)

Date

2017

Abstract

Circular product design is a relatively new approach to design suitable strategies to realize circular products. Additive manufacturing (AM) is seen as a promising enabling production process. It has digital and additive characteristics, which makes AM different from conventional production techniques. However, it is yet unclear how this technique can contribute to circular product design in practice. In this paper, a literature review is placed in context, i.e. the results of a literature review on sustainability opportunities in AM are compared to five typical design cases in a design review.
The outcomes of the literature study reveal the aspects of the digital and additive characteristics of AM, that lead to potential sustainability opportunities. We compared these aspects to the circular design strategies as described by Bakker et al. (2014) and Bocken et al. (2016) in the context of the five selected design projects. Each project is described in terms of circular design strategies and how these were achieved through additive manufacturing.
Using design practice to reflect on the outcomes of the literature review resulted in a better understanding of the potential of additive manufacturing for circular product design. The relation between the sustainability aspects of AM and the circular design strategies were made explicit. AM seems to be especially suitable to customize parts to fit existing products and to contribute to new opportunities regarding material recycling. These findings deserve further exploration in order to understand the motives for implementation in circular product design.

Subject

Circular product design
Additive manufacturing
3D printing
Circular economy
Sustainability

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c8b24b3f-e286-454f-9709-fca25c8d6245

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-820-4-358

Publisher

IOS Press, Amsterdam

ISBN

978-1-61499-819-8

Source

Plate Product Lifetimes And The Environment 2017: Conference Proceedings