The traditional manufacturing industry produces a major chunk of greenhouse gases, which bear a huge responsibility for global climate change. Climate change is a big problem that must be resolved with a multi-pronged approach.
Green manufacturing is the way forward for a low-carbon future. That’s where additive manufacturing comes into play. Compared to traditional manufacturing techniques, additive manufacturing offers a variety of positive environmental advantages.
Over the years, additive manufacturing has been hailed as the future of manufacturing. However, this technology can play a critical role in addressing climate change.
Reduced Wastage
The biggest benefit of additive manufacturing is that there’s minimal usage and wastage of material.
Traditional manufacturing is subtractive in nature, which results in heavy wastage. Subtractive manufacturing is all about removing chunks of a block of material to produce the desired shape.
Additive manufacturing, on the other hand, works by adding layers of material to create a product or component. This process considerably reduces material wastage, machine emissions as well as energy usage.
By reducing wastage and usage of materials, additive manufacturing has a direct impact on reducing carbon emissions.
Efficient Use of Resources
Additive manufacturing not only enables rapid prototyping but also helps enables the recycling of materials. Prototyping involves the creation of several samples and models until the final concept is arrived at.
Metals can be recycled to powder form, which means that the same material can be used repeatedly, improving material efficiency and, in turn, reducing its impact on the environment.
Supply Chain
Additive manufacturing is known for producing lightweight components. Moreover, this technology can create products that require no assembly or set-up, thereby shortening down the supply chain.
Transportation
This includes transporting, storing and handling the product until it reaches the end user. The biggest impact of additive manufacturing on the transportation aspect of carbon footprint is that it does away with the need for transportation.
Additive manufacturing allows you to produce components on demand, which enables zero-inventory manufacturing. Any location with a 3D printer becomes a warehouse in its own right.
TMetal, Your Metal Powder Specialists
If you are looking to adopt additive manufacturing in your business, you need a reliable supply of metal powders to operate. Here at TMetal we manufacture a range of metal powders that can be used in additive manufacturing. Get in touch with us today to discuss your requirements.
