A short survey of sustainable material extrusion additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has been developed for more than thirty years and has become a mainstream manufacturing process. Sustainability is becoming increasingly significant for human’s health. In recent years, studies have been carried out to make AM a sustainable manufacturing technique. In this paper, research in improving manufacturing sustainability of material extrusion AM is reviewed. Studies with the aim of saving material, production time and energy in material extrusion AM processes are discussed. Future potential research directions are also identified for making AM more sustainable in the future.