ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF FRICTION STIR BASED ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING APPROACHES

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a revolutionary technology that has transformed traditional manufacturing processes. This innovative approach has opened up new possibilities across various industries, ranging from aerospace and healthcare to automotive and consumer goods. As far as metals are concerned, along with fusion-based processes such as Selective Laser Melting (SLM) or Electron Beam Melting (EBM), solid-state, friction-based additive manufacturing processes have recently been developed and have caught the attention of several researchers[1]. In this paper two variants of solid-state friction-based additive processes are presented: (i) Friction Surfacing [2] (ii) processes based on friction stir welding, known as Friction Stir Additive Manufacturing (FSAM)[3]. In the paper an experimental campaign with varying the main process parameters is presented and the obtained samples are analyzed from both mechanical properties and resource consumption performance angles. Energy and resource flows are quantified and analyzed for each process; guidelines for the environmentally friendly process selection are provided.