In the book "Climate Economy and Human Future", Bill Gates talked about the "zero carbon" industry as a huge economic opportunity. Those countries that can make breakthroughs in this field will be the countries that will lead the global economy in the next ten years. . Faced with the impact of human activities on climate change, human beings need new technologies, new companies, and new products to reduce the green premium.
Contemporary developments that do not harm future generations
Over the past 5 years, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the resulting weather phenomena have finally changed the general perception of fossil fuel emissions by people, politics, and industry, with most forces tending towards efforts to reduce carbon emissions, seeking A more sustainable manufacturing and lifestyle.
In this pursuit, 3D printing-additive manufacturing has been promoted as a production technology to reduce emissions, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of part production and the complete product life cycle. 3D printing - additive manufacturing technology offers tremendous opportunities for reusability, efficient use of resources, on-demand production, and adding value to materials.
Taking the machining of titanium alloys as the research object, additive manufacturing technology can significantly reduce the carbon footprint compared to milling, because it can optimize the design of the part and save material, thus compensating for the higher energy consumption in the part manufacturing process. In terms of 3D printing of aluminum alloys and stainless steel, it can be seen that the high-productivity SLM metal 3D printing technology has surprising prospects, and the high utilization rate of materials and energy from the 3D printing process chain can reduce the carbon footprint in the future.
Complete Circular Development Contribution
3D printing has a positive sustainability impact throughout a product's manufacturing and uses life cycle. This includes:
Demand for materials: The near-net-shape nature of additive manufacturing technology reduces the demand for raw materials. Considering the consumption of large quantities of petrochemical resources such as coolants and the generation of large amounts of metal fragments in traditional machining processes such as milling, and additive manufacturing The sustainable character of manufacturing is evident.
Carbon Footprint Impact of Localized Manufacturing: Considering that logistics is another major driver of CO2 emissions, the discrete localized manufacturing features brought about by 3D printing greatly reduce the need for warehousing and logistics, thereby helping to achieve more sustainable development.
Impact on parts manufacturing route: As far as product manufacturing itself is concerned, 3D printing can achieve a higher degree of design freedom. For example, parts that originally required dozens of parts to be assembled together can be manufactured at one time in an integrated manner. Significant reductions in manufacturing, reduced transport, testing, and assembly work, often in addition to weight savings, can also reduce CO2 emissions more broadly.
On-demand manufacturing: At present, there are many on-demand manufacturing platforms around the world. The products traded by humans are not based on physical objects as direct transaction objects, but on-demand manufacturing methods based on three-dimensional design drawings. This reduces the production of too many wasteful products, resulting in a more matched balance between the quantity manufactured and the demand. Reducing waste is an additional contribution of 3D printing to reducing carbon emissions.
Improved Product Efficiency: 3D Printing-Additive Manufacturing's unique weight and performance-optimized design can improve the operating efficiency of current systems such as turbines, hydraulics, heat exchangers, etc., resulting in significant energy savings and CO2 reduction throughout the product's life cycle emission. These savings can be many times larger than the actual production emissions, which is the beauty of 3D printing's "four-two-two-two-one-two-one-for-one" in changing the world.