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Design for sustainability (DfS) considers the well-being of people and the environment when designing engineered systems and services to minimize negative impacts on the environment and users from product manufacture, transport, operation, and disposal, while also improving human health and comfort. We study two aspects of DfS: part design and process design.
Part Design
Part Design
We investigate the material selection and shape of a part so as to provide the required performance with minimum material usage. Through additive manufacturing processes, we can consolidate an assembly of multiple parts into one light-weight, locally and digitally produced part. Also, new materials such as digitally defined alloys and new shapes resulting from topology optimization algorithms are best handled in a digital manufacturing approach that collects process feedback data to model and adjust process parameters.
Process Design: Metals
Process Design: Metals
Steelmaking is a huge carbon dioxide producing process (second only to concrete-making in construction). There will not be enough scrap steel to recycle to solve the carbon dioxide emission problem in the short term. We have developed a powder metallurgical approach to convert natural iron ores into iron and steel without even melting. We pair this with green hydrogen to strip the oxygen from iron oxides. We pair this powder with additive manufacturing approaches for optimized part design.
Process Design: Polymers
Process Design: Polymers
Post consumer thermoplastic recycling has been found uneconomical in many contexts. The center is working on the problem of thermoplastic polymer recycling by additive manufacturing. We have successfully improved the feeding of hard-to-feed polymer formats such as grinds and flakes in fused granule fabrication. We share our progress in a video linked below.
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