News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Tune in Thursday, May 14, at 8:00 p.m. EDT for a live Q&A with Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Director, Research and Development; and designer, artist, and professor Neri Oxman, about the exhibition Neri Oxman: Material Ecology, as part of MOMA’s Virtual Views initiative.
A significant milestone for additive manufacturing has been achieved in the nuclear industry: a first-of-its-kind 3D printed component has successfully been installed into a commercial nuclear reactor. The part, a 3D printed thimble plugging device, was installed by nuclear energy company Westinghouse Electric Company at Exelon’s Byron Unit 1 nuclear plant during its spring refueling outage.
The Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association (AMGTA), a new green trade organization dedicated to promoting the environmental benefits of AM, has announced the appointment of Sherry Handel as its first Executive Director. First launched in November 2019, the AMGTA is a non-commercial, unaffiliated organization open to any additive manufacturer or industry stakeholder that meets certain criteria relating to sustainability of production or process.
During the company’s annual meeting – AM2020 – which was held this week within a very large dedicated space inside Florence’s Leopolda Station, energy giant Baker Hughes extensively discussed and showed new technological solutions that will enable to company to meet its decarbonization goals by 2030. It may seem almost paradoxical for an oil and gas giant to promise clean and sustainable energy however the exact opposite is true. Baker Hughes, with its partners and senior management teams, are entirely focused on identifying real solutions for clean energy, not the impossible promise of doing away with fossil fuels at once, but a clear strategy toward a sustainable energy mix, which includes all renewables and is enabled by technology. Clean energy does not just mean cleaner energy sources but also a more efficient and streamlined production of energy generating systems – across the entire system manufacturing, energy generation and energy distribution supply chains. And you guessed it: additive manufacturing is at the core of this strategy.
Well if this isn’t an innovative reuse of fast food waste, then I don’t know what is. Researchers from the University of Toronto have achieved an exciting first by turning used cooking oil from McDonald’s into a high-resolution 3D printing resin. The material, which is also biodegradable, could provide a cheaper and more eco-friendly alternative to traditional 3D printing resins.
Canadian materials science company Equispheres has been granted $8 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). The backing will enable Equispheres to scale up the production capacity for its metal additive manufacturing powder over the course of the next two years.
Lancashire3D Ltd, a large 3D printing studio in the North of England, has become the first UK based studio to deliver on the circular production promise, in which resources are reused again and again to benefit the 3D printing ecosystem, and the environment, by reducing its waste and recycling on site. Called the Sustainable Range, these recycled plastics will complement its existing Filamentive recycled plastics and will be offered to customers at a discounted price, allowing Lancashire3D Ltd to pass on the savings from reclaiming plastics.
Last week, 3D printer manufacturer RIZE became the first company to attain UL 2904 GREENGUARD certification for its RIZE One 3D printer. The certification, which addresses 3D printer particle emissions and safety, followed a multi-year study conducted by the Georgia University of Technology and UL, a leading global safety science company. Now, the Georgia University of Technology has revealed more about the findings of the study and the impact that 3D printing could have on indoor air quality.
Think of her what you will (that she is moved by larger interest groups or that she is being used for notoriety) but there is no doubt that young Greta Thunberg is now in the global spotlight and has done more than anyone to raise awareness on the need for eco-sustainability. By bringing attention to the relative issue of global warming, she has also indirectly driven attention toward the real issue that is affecting life on this planet: pollution. Be it from CO2 emissions, radioactivity, poisonous chemicals or plastic. The issue of plastic pollution – and by extent ocean plastic pollution – is the one that concerns (or should concern) the AM industry more directly. Since 3D printing provided a new way to process plastic, it can be a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Plastic Bank, an entity created in 2013, has carried out some interesting activities to enable recycling of ocean-bound plastic in some of the world’s poorest communities, by attempting to transform used plastic into currency. In the organization’s initial idea, 3D printing was expected to play a part as a means to process used plastic. That may not have happened yet, however, it could, in the future, be used to process some of the 5 million kilograms of plastic that Plastic Bank has recovered over the past 6 years.
Your morning cup of OJ could become a lot more eco-friendly in the future thanks to a novel (or navel!) circular juice bar developed by Italian design studio Carlo Ratti Associati. The system, which was created for Italy-based global energy company Eni, juices oranges and then turns the unused orange rind into 3D printed bioplastic cups. The machine, charmingly called Feel the Peel, is a prototype system that hopes to make one small part of our daily life more circular.