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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainability; manufacturing; life cycle assessment; cost modeling
Interests: sustainable manufacturing and operations management; agile and lean manufacturing; Industry 4.0
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Interests: 3D printing; life cycle; manufacturing; composite materials
Interests: materials and technology evaluation and selection; product development; composite materials; mechanical design; rapid prototyping; additive manufacturing
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid advances in Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies are capturing the interest of several industries and are possible drivers for disruptive changes in supply from the design process to the end-of-life, providing significant advantages over traditional manufacturing processes in terms of flexibility in design and production and waste minimization
AM can be described as a group of technologies that manufacture objects by adding material layer by layer. The technologies are regarded as a core element of the I4.0, opening the possibility for digital warehouses, shortened production lines, descentralization and new business models. Furthermore, there is a growing interest in understanding how AM technologies may foster sustainability in manufacturing systems by optimizing material, allowing for new shapes and product costumization, and by shortening supply chains, reducing resources in production, logistics and inventories. Given the wide scope of possible impacts of AM technologies in manufacturing systems and supply chains, it is critical to assess them in a life cycle perspective and through the three pillars of sustainability—people, the planet and profit. Furthermore, it is important to develop methods to allow designers and companies to integrate AM into their product development process, supporting them with assessment models.
This Special Issue welcomes papers covering approaches for the sustainability assessment of AM technologies, applications case studies, design for AM and its life cycle impact, and other studies contributing to the comprehensive integration and assessment of AM technologies in a life cycle perspective. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, several facets of life cycle sustainability assessment of additive manufacturing:
- Methodologies for sustainability assessment of AM technologies;
- Design for AM and life cycle impacts;
- Impact of AM technologies in supply chains;
- AM technologies and I4.0 topics, namely digital warehouses;
- Case studies illustrating disruptive changes driven by AM technologies;
- Case studies illustrating the adoption of AM in specific industries;
- Environmental and/or cost assessment of AM technologies;
- Social assessment of AM technologies.
Prof. Dr. Inês Ribeiro
Prof. Dr. Paulo Peças
Prof. Dr. Bruno Soares
Prof. Dr. Marco Leite
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- additive manufacturing technologies
- sustainability assessment
- life cycle perspective
- design for AM
- AM and Industry 4.0