How Can We Design Sustainability into Additive Manufacturing?

The additive manufacturing (AM) industry continues to grow, doubling in size roughly every five years. With this also comes an increasing environmental footprint. AM holds many promised environmental benefits. From lightweight parts for electric vehicles and reduced material consumption through optimized designs and flexible localized production, there’s no shortage of potential. However, many caveats remain. How do you print parts that perform better and last longer? Is the lightest part necessarily the most sustainable? How can we design not just for the printing process, but also for post processing, shipping, and the entire product lifecycle? In this class, we’ll look at design technology and case studies that will provide insight into these questions. We’ll also cover how you can start putting these technologies and workflows into practice to turn promised sustainability ideas into reality—while avoiding common pitfalls.