AMGTA Commissions Its First Life Cycle Assessment Research Project

Jet engine low pressure turbine bracket

The Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association (AMGTA), a global trade group created to promote the green benefits of additive manufacturing (AM), has commissioned its first life cycle assessment research project for AM. It selected the Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) at the Rochester Institute of Technology to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) comparing an additively designed and manufactured aerospace component to a traditionally manufactured component.

The study will be ISO 14040 compliant and compare the cradle-to-grave environmental impacts of a jet engine low pressure turbine (LPT) bracket produced through traditional manufacturing methods with one that is produced via AM.

“This new study will include up to 18 different environmental indicators to quantify the environmental impacts that an optimized jet engine LPT bracket has throughout its entire life cycle — from material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, use and its eventual end-of-life,” says Sherry Handel, AMGTA’s executive director. “This data will then be compared to a traditionally designed and manufactured LPT bracket to determine where exactly powder bed fusion AM technology results in lower environmental impacts.”

The group says that through robust and independent research studies, it will continue to publish research reports that advance environmental sustainability within the AM industry.

The LCA report will be peer reviewed by a panel of three LCA experts to ensure methodology, data, assumptions, results and conclusions are accurate. The report is expected to be published in the spring of 2022 and the key findings will be announced at RAPID + TCT in May 2022.

The AMGTA was launched in November 2019 to promote the environmental benefits of AM over traditional methods of manufacturing. The AMGTA is a non-commercial, unaffiliated organization open to any additive manufacturer or industry stakeholder that meets certain criteria relating to sustainability of production or process.