Environmental Benefits of 3D Metal Printing Technology

While the technology has many benefits, it also has a few drawbacks. Among these are energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Most manufacturing methods are subtractive, which means that they start with a solid piece of material and remove what’s not needed. This creates waste material, which has to be discarded or recycled.

1. Energy Efficiency

Compared to traditional manufacturing methods, 3D printing has a lower energy consumption and carbon footprint. This is because additive manufacturing eliminates the need for a conventional supply chain, which uses fossil fuels to transport products from manufacturer to consumer. Moreover, the production process of additive manufacturing can take place at the point of need, which significantly reduces operational costs and carbon emissions. Moreover, the use of renewable energy sources for metal fabrication further reduces the environmental impact.

However, despite being an environmentally friendly technology, the impact of 3D printing on the environment depends on several factors such as design choices, source of energy and types of plastic used. Additionally, the printer’s ability to function without consuming air and the proper disposal of waste material are also important.

As the use of 3D printing technology increases, research and development is ongoing to improve the efficiency of the process. One such example is the use of a sieving process to recycle powder from failed prints, which reduces energy usage. This is important because the unmelted powder can be reused and mixed with new metal powder to form an entirely new component.

In addition to lowering the carbon footprint, additive manufacturing can create parts that are better suited for the specific application of a product. This helps companies to balance performance, cost-effectiveness and environmental safety, while also reducing assembly time on-site. This can lead to increased productivity and improved efficiency in the oil and gas industry, for example, when creating more efficient and durable drilling equipment.

The paper by Jeremy Faludi, assistant professor of Design for Sustainability at TU Delft, and Corrie Van Sice, Manufacturing Sustainability Research Engineer, compares the sustainability of metal AM and conventional manufacturing by stage in a product’s life cycle. Although AM is a more sustainable option than conventional manufacturing in several applications, it will take time for researchers to fully understand the impact of various factors such as raw material extraction and gas atomization on the carbon footprint.

2. Environmentally Friendly

Many manufacturing processes require extensive, carbon-heavy supply chains to deliver materials to fabrication sites. This is a substantial contributor to the global climate change. By providing versatile point-of-need fabrication, 3D printing removes the need for these multiple carbon-heavy steps.

Of course, this does not mean that metal additive manufacturing is entirely carbon-free. But, it can significantly reduce the total environmental impact of a part by cutting out wasteful and redundant steps.

Additive manufacturing has a lower environmental impact than traditional methods because it requires less material and produces far fewer waste products. This makes it an excellent choice for sustainable manufacturing and green production. It also means that more parts can be produced in a shorter timeframe. This cuts down on material waste and shipping distances.

This is especially true for metal 3D printing. In fact, a recent study by the Additive Manufacturers Green Trade Association (AMGTA) showed that metal AM is more environmentally friendly than CNC machining for most parts. Its study compared the energy consumption of each stage in a part’s life cycle. This included feedstock preparation, printing, post-processing and more. It also looked at the recycling potential of each process.

A further benefit of reducing supporting structure is that it allows for near-net-shape expansion, which cuts down on waste material. In addition, the metal powder that is not used during printing can be sieved and reused. In fact, several manufacturers offer sieving solutions for AM powders.

3. Recyclable

One of the biggest reasons to consider 3D printing for metal is that the technology is able to produce components using a variety of materials. This includes types of metals that are normally quite difficult to work with, like titanium and nickel superalloys. The ability to use these materials can help companies save on raw material costs and make products more environmentally friendly.

In addition, 3D printing for metal is a highly efficient process, with minimal waste produced. This is due to the fact that raw materials are added layer by layer rather than subtracted or cut out of a bulk solid figure. As a result, parts redesigned for 3D printing can be lighter than those made with traditional methods. Every gram that is removed from a product means that less fuel will be needed to transport it or power it, leading to significant savings on both energy consumption and emissions.

The environmental impact of metal 3D printing is further minimised by the recyclability of the materials used. While this is true of all 3D printing technologies, it is particularly relevant for laser metal deposition (LMD) techniques. This method of printing uses a stream of powdered metal to deposit layers, which are then sintered together to form the final product. The resulting products are far more easily recyclable than those produced by fused deposition modelling (FDM) techniques, which use thermoplastic polymer filaments that cannot be reused.

Moreover, the printing powder left over from LMD can be sieved and used again for future prints. This is in contrast to the more traditional injection moulding and machining processes, which produce a significant amount of waste in the form of unmelted powder and support structures. These waste streams can be greatly reduced by taking proper care during the design and build preparation stages, with support structures being optimised and failed prints prevented through simulation.

4. Reusable

The 3 Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – are an important part of green living. 3D printing or additive manufacturing (AM) is a great way to achieve these goals in many different ways, including in metals. Metal AM processes produce less waste than traditional subtractive fabrication methods, and the un-sintered metal powder used in the process can be recycled.

One of the most significant environmental benefits of 3D metal printing is the fact that it eliminates a lot of unnecessary cutting and milling of metals, which produces far more waste than the material needed to make a component. According to a recent study, machining operations could result in waste as high as 95% of the original metal block used to make a part. Metal 3D printing processes are much more efficient, with waste rates below 5 percent.

There are several other environmental benefits of 3D Metal printers, but the impact varies depending on the design choices, sources of energy, materials used and how they’re handled. Xometry has a team of experts that can help you determine which technology is the right fit for your application and create a product that will have minimal impact on the environment.

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