Additive Manufacturing Awareness For Engineering Education in France

Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the pillars of the Industry 4.0. Compared to traditional manufacturing, AM is a layer-by-layer construction; it provides a prototype before producing in order to optimize the design and avoid the stock market and uses strictly necessary material, which can be recyclable, at the benefit of leaning towards local production, saving money, time and resources. Different processes of AM exist and it has a broad range of applications across several industries like aerospace, automotive, medicine, education and else. In the industry 4.0 and aligned with the numbers 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and 12 (Responsible Production and Consumption) of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UNESCO 2030 Agenda, AM’s manufacturers committed to minimize the environmental impacts by being sustainable in every production. AM has several environmental advantages, like reduced waste production, lower energy consumption, and greater flexibility in creating components with lightweight and complex geometries. However, additive manufacturing also has environmental drawbacks, like energy consumption, gas consumption and emissions. It is critical to recognize the environmental impacts of AM in order to mitigate them. To increase awareness and promote sustainable practices regarding AM, the researchers use the Elaboration Likelihood Model theory where people process information in two ways: peripherally and centrally. The peripheral campaigns use superficial cues to get attention, and the central campaigns provide clear and concise information. The authors created a seminar including video showing experts’ interviews on AM. The data is collected using questionnaire to test attitude about the public awareness before and after the seminar. The results reflected a great shift on the awareness toward AM and its impacts on the environment. With no presence of similar research, this study will add to the literature the human perception of the sustainability of additive manufacturing.