3D Printing Can Be Green

Eco-blog GreenProphet recognizes the potential green value of 3D printing in a recent post. They were inspired by Objet's recent experiment in 3D printing an entire car dashboard (which, by the way, has been done before by 3D Systems as you can see an entire Mercedes dashboard in their lobby). 

 

Objet's automobile experiment attempted to 3D print a production car dashboard assembled from some 20 unique 3D printed parts as their contribution to StreetScooter. It's an "affordable electric car" project undertaken by a consortium of eighty companies. 

 

GreenProphet correctly realized several key green benefits to 3D printing: 

 

Can utilize greener materials such as plant-based biodegradable PLA plastics, paper and even sand.

Wastes less material than injection molding, milling and other traditional manufacturing techniques.

Reduces the distance products and replacement parts must be shipped.

Allows consumers to reshape and recycle end-of-life products.

Enables architects and designers to rapidly to prototype green concepts.

 

We think the main benefit could eventually be the reduction in shipping, which in some cases is eliminated. Another benefit is the reduction in material used by designing and printing parts that have complex but incredibly strong internal structures. This approach is difficult or impossible using conventional manufacturing techniques.  

 

Via GreenProphet and Objet (Hat tip to Karin)

ReFabbing!

Tipster Jean-François Allie points us at a couple of very interesting projects that exploit 3D fabbing in a way we hadn't considered: ReFabbing!

The idea springs from observation of tremendous waste deposits of unused manufactured gear. For example, what happens with that old toothbrush, cell phone or other non-functional plastic thingy? They get thrown into the trash, often in a non-recyclable way.

The Meta-Morphose and MetaCycle projects have a very different idea. They propose ways to create a "second life" for these objects by ReFabbing. These objects are non-functional - for their original purpose only! They are still solid objects with some capabilities. Here's what happens:

Create ideas for reuse. This is done by social networking using the Meta-Morphose service. Common object descriptions and images are uploaded and reuse ideas are socialized. Sometimes (maybe often, we'll see) the ideas require extra parts added to the object for new functions.

Where do these extra parts come from? Common 3D print services!

They envision a service where you could look up your non-functional object, select a new use for it, press a button and then wait for the necessary added parts to arrive. When they do, simply snap them together and you have revitalized your broken object. This movie illustrates how it could work.

This is still at the experimental stage, but we believe this could form an important recycling layer in the future, especially once 3D printers are commonly found in homes.

Via Meta-Morphose and MetaCycle