Impact of Total Build Height and Batch Size on Environmental Performance of Electron Beam Melting

摘要

Electron beam melting (EBM) is an additive manufacturing technology, which uses electron beam to melt metallic powder layer by layer and build fully dense parts. This technique is applied efficiently in industrial sectors and biomedical engineering. However, understanding on the environmental aspect of this process is still an open question. In this paper, the influence of total build height and batch size on the environmental performance of EBM is particularly investigated. By comparing environmental impacts between EBM combined with finishing machining (EBM + FM) and conventional manufacturing approaches to manufacture a part, the environmental benefit area of (EBM + FM) is also identified.