Comparative Life Cycle and Machinability Assessment of Milling WAAM and Wrought Inconel 925
Authors :- M Makhesana, A Jha, K Patel, Ş Şirin, G Singh & N. Khanna
Publication :- Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, Springer, 2025
One of the significant challenges the manufacturing industry faces is creating sustainable machining processes that strike a balance between economic productivity and energy consumption. To address this challenge, this work is focused on a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis and machinability analysis during the milling of wrought and wire arc additively manufactured (WAAMed) Inconel 925 (IN925). In addition, the work offers an in-depth description of the steps essential to conduct LCA. Four conditions are used for machining experiments: dry, flood cooling, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), and hybrid nanofluid MQL (HNMQL). LCA is performed for 18 environmental impact categories using the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) impact assessment method. The comparison study demonstrated the potential benefits of additive manufacturing, especially in terms of lower material waste and energy efficiency. Using HNMQL reduced surface roughness by approximately 19-46% for wrought and 25-51% for WAAMed IN925. Further, the tool wear under HNMQL is reduced by 11% and 32% than MQL and flood cooling. Applying hybrid nanofluid MQL revealed a good balance between machinability and environmental effects for machining WAAMed IN925. However, the interpretation also underscored the critical role of the machining phase, urging industries to prioritize optimization strategies and innovative cooling techniques to minimize environmental impacts further.