Evaluating the cost competitiveness of metal additive manufacturing – A case study with metal material extrusion

Abstract

Metal additive manufacturing (MAM) is a rapidly advancing manufacturing process with the potential to replace or supplement existing conventional manufacturing processes. MAM is currently associated with a high investment cost and is mostly seen in centralized manufacturing configurations with low-volume and high-value products. This paper evaluates the cost competitiveness of MAM by investigating a novel lowcost MAM process – metal material extrusion (Metal MEX). Metal MEX, unlike other MAM processes such as powder bed fusion (PBF), has a lower investment cost, faster production rate, and simpler operations, which has opened new opportunities for distributed low-cost production through MAM. A cost model of the metal MEX process - Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing (ADAM) that focused on the production costs was presented. The cost model was further used to evaluate the cost competitiveness of metal MEX through a case study. Three production scenarios were compared to CNC machining, where it was shown that metal MEX, under specific production conditions, has the capability to be cost-competitive with CNC machining. Based on the proposed cost model and case study, a conceptual cost framework is presented, giving key insight into how a MAM cost advantage can be generated by incorporating the benefits of MAM.