Sustainability
Additive manufacturing is inherently a means of production that could improve the sustainability of industries around the world. The very idea of producing by adding only the material needed, instead of removing material in excess, without the need of producing tools could be a game-changer for the global environment. If fewer materials are needed, less are wasted. Producing parts when they are needed, and where they are needed can go a long way reducing overall emissions from industrial production.
The match between AM and sustainability also goes beyond industrial production: the use of 3D printing in construction is emerging as a much more environment-friendly approach, both in terms of workflows and materials used. This has obvious repercussions in the housing industry but also in renewable energy production.
However, the road to making AM a truly sustainable means of production is a long one. Currently, many metal AM processes are high-energy-intensive, many polymers AM processes still waste a lot of – often toxic – materials and construction 3D printing processes are still in their infancy.
As the global economy undergoes a dramatic contraction, an opportunity emerges to further develop AM into a way to produce in a more efficient way: digital, on-demand, additive and distributed manufacturing is now a serious and credible option. It may be the only option to tackle – in one shot – all the social, economic, health and environmental challenges that lie ahead.
Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) has received an £87,000 grant from Innovate UK to expand its portfolio of green technology for post-processing 3D printed parts. Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation competition was created to help all sectors of the UK recover, grow, and create new opportunities from the aftermath of the global…
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With a story published on April 1st (but we performed all the necessary anti-April Fools checks and can now confirm it), researchers in USC Viterbi’s Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering have revealed a low-cost reusable support method based on a dynamic 3D printing platform which reduces…
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WAZP, a global end-to-end supply chain for Additive Manufacturing has created a 3D printing solutions-focused platform called Spark. The platform will assist businesses trying to adopt and reap the benefits of additive manufacturing when producing products and components. Spark offers files that are ready to print, fully customizable, have varying…
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Ford teamed up with HP to reuse spent 3D printed powders and parts, thus closing a supply chain loop and turning them into injection-molded vehicle parts. The recycled materials are being used to manufacture injection-molded fuel-line clips installed first on Super Duty F-250 trucks. The parts have better chemical and…
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Emery Oleochemicals’ Green Polymer Additives business unit has developed a binder system for 3D printing of sinterable metals and ceramics to further extend the material options available to the additive manufacturing industry. Emery’s technical group began developing the company’s first binder system for metal injection molding in the early 1990s.…
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Metals, in general, are very recyclable materials. Exactly how recyclable are they? Can they be recycled well enough that they can be re-used to produce critical parts in complex processes such as metal laser powder bed fusion? F3nice, a startup based in Milan, thinks so and plans on building a…
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Sintavia published an overview of proper handling procedures for powder condensate for AM waste generated as part of the powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process. The paper, titled, “Overview of Disposal Procedures for Powder Condensate” was written by Sintavia’s Quality & EHS Engineer, Ashley Wallace, in collaboration with the Additive…
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The Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association (AMGTA), a global trade organization created to promote the environmental benefits of additive manufacturing (AM), announced that eight additional leading AM organizations joined the trade group to advance sustainable AM. The AMGTA’s now has twenty members. Joining as a new Founding Member is ExOne, a…
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Recreus introduced Reciflex, a new flexible TPU filament that is 100% recycled. This flexible TPU filament is made from 100% recycled materials consisting of waste from the footwear industry and from Recreus’ own internal production processes. Its hardness ranges between 96A and 98A SHORE ‘A’ due to the variations attributable…
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XPRIZE launched the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal sponsored by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation and there is little doubt that 3D printing will accelerate and enable reaching this objective. This four-year global competition invites innovators and teams from anywhere on the planet to create and demonstrate a solution that…
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