Sustainable Plastics - March/April 2023 - 14

additive manufacturing
continued from page 13
duce hemp-based filaments
include 3D-Fuel, Advanced
BioCarbon 3D, and Extrudr.
* Recycled filaments: these
are made from recycled plastic
materials, such as PET bottles,
ocean plastics, or waste from
other manufacturing processes.
Recycled filaments are an
eco-friendly option, as their use
reduces waste, keeps valuable
resources from ending up in
landfills, and promotes a circular
economy. Companies like
Filamentive, RePLAy 3D, and
Protopasta produce recycled
filaments.
* Wood-based filaments:
made from recycled wood
particles mixed with a binding
agent. They can be biodegradable
and create a natural-looking
finish. Such filaments are
supplied by 3D-Fuel, ColorFabb,
Formfutura, and Protopasta.
*
Bio-based powders: made
from partially or 100% plantbased
raw materials. One company
supplying various grades
is Arkema, including 100% biobased
produced from castor oil.
An important note in this regard:
the use of compostable
filaments is not a licence to
litter. In all cases, appropriate
end-of-life disposal routes must
be established, even if a product
comes with degradable
properties. In that case, proper
disposal - in the organic waste
stream - should be ensured.
A playground for
designers
The potential for 3D printing to
disrupt the way in which a product
is designed, developed, and
manufactured is huge. Additive
technologies require designers
to completely rethink their
design approaches and open
up new ways of overcoming
typical design constraints. 3D
printing allows designers to
focus on geometries that are
hard or impossible to otherwise
manufacture, enables the
individualisation of products,
design spare parts, and more.
Show me your footprint
All in all, 3D printing has the
potential to reduce the carbon
14
March/April 2023
footprint of manufacturing by
reducing both the amount of
waste generated and the energy
used, thus enabling more
efficient production processes.
As we saw, choosing a
more sustainable material also
counts in the overall environmental
impact, as does the
post-processing and disposal
options of 3D printed objects.
Choosing
energy-efficient
printers and renewable energy
sources, as well as printing for
local production can definitely
An example of such thinking is intelligent application
conceived by EOS, a platform called 'Digital Foam'. It
develops and produces 3D printed foams for applications
like helmets and soles. These can replicate and outperform
most conventional foams and be tailored to specific needs.
Dirk van der Kooij uses discarded
refrigerators to harness
the plastic parts and turn them
into furniture. His Chubby chair
is printed from 10kg of chipped,
recycled fridge interiors. Or the
new Ecoalf store in Las Rozas,
Spain, designed by Nagami to
replicate the look of a melting
glacier that has been completely
printed from 100% recycled
plastic. The walls, shelves, and
display tables are made from
3.3 tonnes of recycled plastic.
The entire space is recyclable at
the end of its life cycle.
Many designers have already
taken their first steps in the field
of 3D printing. A studio that has
been tango-dancing with it for
over a decade is WertelOberfell
in Munich. One of its first commercial
3D printed products
was the fractal table it exhibited
at the 2008 Salone del Mobile in
Milan, produced by Materialise.
The designers were fascinated
by the object's grown and
Van der Kooij's Chubby Chair
organic nature in parallel to its
structured and mathematical
quality. Both in terms of size
and complexity, this product,
which is produced as a single
piece SLA in epoxy resin, pushes
the manufacturing process
to its limits.
Smaller products that can be
printed in larger series have also
been developed by the studio
over the years. One example is a
decorative element for a LUMIX
camera housing. The designers'
aim was to push the boundaries
of how thin and minuscule (partly
around 0.5mm) it is possible
to go with 3D printing without
jeopardising strength and durability.
By using real metals like
copper and nickel, they also
added value.
Or take the Razor Maker by
Gillette, an initiative to make 3D
printed products available to
the broader public. The handles
fit standard Gillette heads. They
can be customised and ordered
online, are very durable and
able to withstand daily use.
And while I am familiar with
almost all printing materials on
the market and have mastered
the technology, what I also found
interesting during my visit to the
studio was the open-source approach
they were discussing.
Using 3D printers with a treadmill,
it is possible to hack the
printer's software to create flexibility
in the hardware itself. Apparently,
there are huge online
communities, especially in China,
that provide tips and tricks
on how to tweak the printer to
extend its printing possibilities.
That, in itself, contributes
greatly to a sustainable approach.
After all, compared with
the amount of effort needed to
accommodate changes within
an injection moulding process,
the savings in time, effort and
energy are enormous. Here,
changes are only a few mouse
clicks away.
The new Ecoalf store
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