Integration of Fiber-Reinforced Polymers in a Life Cycle Assessment of Injection Molding Process Chains with Additive Manufacturing
Abstract
Additive manufacturing technologies applied to injection molding process chain have acquired an increasingly important role in the context of tool inserts production, especially by vat polymerization. Despite the decreased lifetime during their use in the injection molding process, the inserts come with improvements in terms of production time, costs, exibility, as well as potentially improved environmental performance as compared to conventional materials in a life cycle perspective.This contribution supports the development of additively manufactured injection molding inserts with the use of fiber-reinforced vat polymerization technology. The life cycle assessment of the prototyping process chain for rapid prototyping with high exibility provides a base for industrial applications in injection molding.