One issue that will truly advance advanced manufacturing – especially additive manufacturing (AM) – is sustainability. AM processes are uniquely poised among manufacturing techniques for innovative steps forward in “greener” opportunities. Importantly, there are ways to do so without greenwashing.
The most-touted benefits of 3D printing for sustainability are relatively simple: additive—in contrast to subtractive—manufacturing adds material rather than removing. With improvements in terms of near-net capabilities to reduce the post-processing requirements necessary to reach final geometries, AM is indeed uniquely poised on many fronts to offer an environmentally superior means of volume production.
Low-hanging fruit like reducing material waste is an obvious win in the argument for implementing AM. However, this is by no means universally understood, accepted or even complete in the scope of end-to-end environmental impact.
AM engineers are increasingly asking a more pointed question when it comes to sustainability: How exactly can polymer, metal and other AM processes move the needle?
Sustainability in AM
Sherri Monroe, Executive Director, Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association (AMGTA), offers a pragmatic look into why such questions are important to the manufacturing industry.
“Sustainability will increasingly be a critical factor in manufacturing,” she says. “The reality is, it’s not a separate issue from profitability. Sustainability and profitability track together. If you’re running a profitable business, you’re probably running a sustainable business. More efficient energy usage, less downtime and more efficiency in production lead to better sustainability. Sometimes sustainability is simply an unintended consequence of running a profitable business. Those metrics will become increasingly important as reporting and customer demands require it.”
In other words: “Sustainability is not just good for business; sustainability is good business.”
This conversation took place recently in Canfield, Ohio, where America Makes hosted its 2023 MMX – Members Meeting & Exchange – event. This event is well-known in the AM industry as a high-value gathering where stakeholders within the America Makes ecosystem share information, research and opportunities. The US national accelerator for AM, America Makes is a public-private consortium powered by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) with one simple overarching goal: to accelerate the adoption of AM in the US.
For its part, the AMGTA is a relatively young organization, founded to drive efforts in sustainability among AM industry participants. Since 2019, the AMGTA has developed a strong member network of companies building life cycle analysis (LCA) reports on quantifiable sustainability data, among other major initiatives.
“We have a working relationship with America Makes to encourage and bring increased awareness of the potential for AM to deliver sustainability gains along with the economic and supply chain benefits of additive,” Monroe says of the organizations’ overlapping interests.
Design for (Sustainable) Additive Manufacturing
“The AMGTA is a tremendous funnel for sustainability-related things in the additive manufacturing industry, says Kimberly Gibson, Ecosystem Director, America Makes. “Their dedicated efforts in these matters help drive our mission to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing.”
But why should engineers – those who are actually designing, building and post-processing additive parts – care?
“Engineers should care because they are gaining tools to design things from the beginning with sustainability in mind,” explains Gibson.
A big part of that from-the-start thinking comes down to concepts already in focus throughout the AM industry. Design for manufacturing (DfM) is an idea more than familiar – downright fundamental – to engineers today. Moving that into the lens of additive manufacturing, DfAM (design for additive manufacturing) is a principle of design through which the process being used to actually produce a part additively is taken into account from the first sketch.
In short, it is often a waste of time and energy to use a design that was created for subtractive manufacturing when employing additive manufacturing. Swapping manufacturing technologies is not a linear or 1:1 proposition; redesign and rethinking are necessary.
The work between America Makes and the AMGTA takes that idea a step further by building sustainability in from the very start of a design.
Talking the Talk, Walking the Walk
According to Gibson, DfAM is essentially about building a new language.
“The partnership between America Makes and the AMGTA will help the industry develop the language and measurements for sustainability in the future,” she says. We don’t currently have a language around sustainability and reliability in additive manufacturing. The American language for these topics is still developing, especially in this industry.”
Such development is necessarily a collaborative effort because the dictionary of AM is still being written by industry participants and stakeholders.
“The AMGTA is working with partners and members around the world to leverage their knowledge and their customer demands to promote these better practices,” says Monroe. “An important part of evaluating AM is not simply comparing it to traditional manufacturing. To really appreciate the benefits of additive manufacturing, you also need to look at its unique capabilities such as redesign for lightweighting or part consolidation, increased part performance, reducing capital tied up in spare part inventory and scalability.”
These applications are a vital part of creating not just a new language, but a working language for a working technology suite. Part of that includes translating into business. Why should decision makers care about the work that will impact their engineers adopting AM?
“Another important aspect of additive manufacturing can be not just looking at the environmental impact of producing the part,” adds Monroe, “but what does this additively manufactured part enable a business to do? Does it enable an energy plant to get up and running sooner? Does it enable obsolete equipment to stay in use longer, rather than being scrapped? It may not just be the footprint of the part, but what does the part enable the business to do?”
Taking that wider view, the AMGTA and its member companies and collaborative partners also expand the definition of sustainability.
Reducing material waste is one thing; shortening supply chain and reducing downtime are another. Sustainability is more than just the old “reduce, reuse, recycle” mindset of ’90s commercial campaigns.
Once the industry develops a working language for sustainability in advanced manufacturing, the most vital aspect finally comes into play: Implementation. In other words, once we can talk the talk, we must then walk the walk.
This is another reason collaboration is so important.
“We’re bringing together stakeholders throughout the manufacturing ecosystem for both the technology developer and the technology user. That includes equipment, material and software for manufacturers and end users. We all need to contribute to these conversations. Better understanding from end users gets better parts for end users,” says Monroe.
When it comes to collaboration, understanding the scope of works-in-progress as well as the potential to co-develop new initiatives is also necessary.
In Monroe’s words: “By working together, we can avoid duplicating efforts, be efficient with our resources and deliver results for all stakeholders and our planet.”