3D printing/AM has great potential to become a driver of the green transition. If the new sustainable solutions and models are to be used and scaled in earnest, there must be common standards in the area.
Sustainability and less waste with 3D printing/AM
Reduced use and waste of materials, local production and smaller inventories. These are just some of the advantages of 3D printing – also called additive manufacturing (AM) – which can ensure reduced CO2 emissions in production, transport and inventory.
Add to this the advantage of finished products consisting of fewer components and being more energy-efficient, as well as the possibility of using both recycled and far more sustainable materials in production.
The sustainable potential is only further strengthened as more and more sustainable materials gain ground and make it possible to print in, for example, recyclable plastic and 100 per cent bio-based material.
From use-and-throw-away to lifetime extension
We see great potential for 3D printing/AM in relation to the green transition – including as a tool for challenging the use-and-throw-away culture:
'For many years, we have become used to defective products no longer being repaired, but being replaced with new ones. It has simply been cheaper to throw the defective item away than to repair it. AM is one of the technologies that is capable of repairing and extending the lifetime of defective items, while at the same time achieving both a price and a quality that are attractive. Lifetime extension rather than new production is quite obviously green', says Michel Honoré, specialist at FORCE Technology.
Standards are a necessary tool in 3D printing/AM
Standards are an important tool when it comes to additive manufacturing:
'AM is, despite all the words, still new. It is not necessarily part of the mental toolbox of the relevant decision-makers. On the one hand, the possibilities with AM are not generally known, and on the other hand, the achievable quality is not generally known either: Are AM components as good as traditionally manufactured components? How do you test them? What is achievable? Here, standards are an excellent tool for ensuring a common language and a common platform for assessing properties and quality', says Michel Honoré.
Today there are already a number of standards within 3D printing and additive manufacturing that can help ensure that the technology can be used with confidence and thereby broaden its use.
Specific standards for sustainability
If even more companies than today are to become better at making optimal use of the advantages of the technology in their production - particularly in relation to sustainability, there is a need for standards that specifically address that aspect.
The need for standards in relation to 3D printing and sustainability is also something people are aware of in the standardisation world. Among other things, a working group has been established in the international standardisation organisation ISO to address this:
'ISO has established a working group that, in time, will look at the need for standards in relation to sustainability and AM. This could, for example, be standards for measurement methods, so that it can be documented that there really is a green effect and, for example, the CO2 footprint across the entire value chain can be measured, so that it can be used as a basis for comparison', says Berit Aadal, senior consultant at Dansk Standard.
