Additive manufacturing (AM) is a technology which creates parts by applying the material layer by layer and is of increasing interest for the industry. Besides economic advantages, AM is often claimed as an environmentally friendly technology, as only the required material is processed and energy savings during the use phase of AM-parts are possible due to lightweight design. However, these energy savings must be contrasted with the energy required to manufacture an AM part. Since energy efficiency depends on a large number of influencing factors it is necessary to analyze the required energy demand of specific AM technologies in more detail.A promising AM technology is Directed Energy Deposition (DED). Existing studies on environmental impact and energy demand of DED are either complex or do not create an objective, common basis for comparison for all energy forms. The process chain analysis carried out in this paper is therefore based on the cumulative energy demand (CED) and includes the process steps of raw material production, powder production, DED and post-processing and therefore encompasses a cradle-to-gate perspective. The analysis shows, that a sole evaluation of the DED process is not sufficient, since the CED of powder production and post processing are significant. Within this analysis energy related input factors, that have an impact on the CED are identified. Furthermore, a model is developed that provides a basis for quantitative energy analyses determines the CED for parts made of Ti-6Al-4V.
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