Design for additive manufacturing under process and environmental constraints: A parametric framework for laser powder bed fusion

Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) architectures require balancing complex laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process parameters with systemic environmental and economic constraints that exhibit non-trivial coupling. We present a parametric engineering optimization framework for LPBF of SS316L that maps these interacting process and lifecycle constraints simultaneously across the DfAM design space. The model parameterizes process parameters, build height, support volume ratio, and powder handling routes as continuous variables, with global warming potential (GWP), cumulative energy demand, and production cost being mapped as response surfaces. A DfAM bracket case study reveals the central constraint tension: topology optimization satisfies the mass-reduction objective but worsens both process and environmental performance through elevated support demand and degraded build volume utilization. Manufacturing-stage energy consumption and cost increase relative to an orientation-optimized conventional design, demonstrating that mass reduction alone is an insufficient proxy for manufacturing-stage engineering sustainability. The framework establishes quantitative, geometry-independent process design envelopes, enabling manufacturing engineers to optimize DfAM workflows against structural, operational, and physical material-reuse boundaries simultaneously at the design stage.