HOW AM IMPROVES SUSTAINABILITY ACROSS THE SUPPLY CHAIN

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING (AM) CAN OFFER AN EFFICIENT AND ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY SOLUTION FOR PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY CHAINS.

- MAX SIEBERT

INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES ARE BECOMING increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability, in turn making it a bigger part of our daily lives. This now extends to the production sector, driven forward by end customer demands, and new industry regulations. In this feature, Max Siebert, CEO of Replique, discusses how additive manufacturing (AM) can offer an efficient and environmentally friendly solution for production and supply chains.

AM ALLOWS SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

AM offers a whole new way of designing products which allow the creation of topology optimized designs. By redesigning, the 3D printed part can accomplish the same task, and even improve the performance compared to the original part, while using less material. Companies can therefore also improve a part consisting of several pieces and print it in only one unit (part consolidation). This results in less material and energy consumption during production compared with traditional methods. In turn, this reduces time spent as less parts need manufacturing and assembling. Additionally, part consolidation can offer better performing parts with increased durability.

AM CAN DRASTICALLY REDUCE MATERIAL CONSUMPTION DURING PRODUCTION

In production, manufacturers look at two essential factors: material consumption and energy efficiency. In traditional manufacturing methods, there is always material waste. For example, in subtractive manufacturing, like CNC, manufacturers start with a block of solid material and remove material to achieve a final shape. In AM, however, the material usage is much more efficient.