AMGTA's Sherry Handel.
While the economic and technical superiority of additive manufacturing (AM) is well known within key industries, its sustainability benefits are often less well understood. For this reason, the Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association (AMGTA) was launched last year at Formnext, with a mission to promote the environmental benefits of AM over traditional manufacturing. The AMGTA is a global and unaffiliated nonprofit organisation, open to any additive manufacturer or industry stakeholder that meets certain criteria relating to sustainability of production or process.
There are several positive environmental benefits of the additive manufacturing process when compared to traditional manufacturing; most notably there is considerably less waste in AM. Existing research on sustainability in AM tends to focus either on material waste, energy use, or machine emissions to manufacture a part. However, there is limited published research that considers life-cycle assessment (LCA) - a comparative study of the environmental impact a part or product has throughout the stages of its life from cradle to grave.
The AMGTA is hoping to address this lack of real research by commissioning studies that include LCAs, which will analyse a part at each phase of its life - from raw material extraction, processing, manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal. This research will determine at a granular level by what amount AM is an environmentally improved manufacturing process. Our first LCA will focus on traditional casting versus powder-bed fusion additive manufacturing.
Sustainability cannot be achieved in a silo. For sustainability to transition from wishful thinking to impactful results, we will need to partner with industry players along the value chain and beyond. Company leadership needs to consider many stakeholders as they develop their sustainability goals and objectives, including employees, customers, vendors, suppliers, communities, government, non-profit organisations, certification entities, educational institutions, and other constituents.
Listen: #40 Additive Insight | AMGTA's Sherry Handel on green additive manufacturing
Through rigorous, independent, and ongoing research, the AMGTA serves as a key industry resource positioned to help our members rise to the challenge of sustainability in AM. The AMGTA plans Sponsored by to publish our research findings and share them with our members, the AM industry, and the public at large.
Sustainability in AM is gaining momentum as more companies strive to improve their eco-footprint. Visionary industry leaders are constantly challenging their employees to find new ways to reduce waste by repurposing or recycling used material, improving the manufacturing environment for their workforce, lessening the distance parts and products travel, finding innovative ways to use new materials including bio-renewables, and other creative solutions to becoming more sustainable. These important initiatives have led to an increase in value-added parts, products, and services. By commissioning and publishing rigorous new research in the field of sustainability and AM, the AMGTA intends to augment and facilitate these continued efforts by industry leaders.
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We all witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic how supply chain disruptions and logistical hurdles were countered with print-on-demand efficiencies, shared CAD files and other resources, as well as the leveraging of community relationships to provide critical PPE such as face shields, testing swabs, and medical equipment parts to hospitals and health care facilities locally and worldwide. Just as the AM industry harnessed the passion of its employees to tackle the challenges presented by the coronavirus to make a difference and save lives, we can also advance sustainability in AM to save our planet.
This resilient industry has learned how to leverage AM in ways that we have never seen before. As the AM industry continues to grow, we will continue to iterate and evolve. We are well positioned to advance sustainability in the AM industry to improve our collective environmental impact globally.
