3D printing has long been touted as a technology that can reduce the environmental impact of products by eliminating or significantly reducing distribution impacts. However, these claims often overlook the fact that filament needs to be shipped to the point of production and the final product still needs to be transported to the place of consumption. Shipping relatively small amounts of filament to distributed points of production and then using couriers or postal services to deliver products to consumers is likely to result in significant transport impacts. Traditionally products are produced in bulk in a single location and containerized before shipping globally. These economies of scale also minimize transport impacts, throwing into question claims made by 3D proponents.
To really understand the full impacts of a 3D printed product a full life cycle assessment (LCA) is needed. This is made more complex by the fact that individual printing units have different efficiencies in melting filament (with domestic printers often being particularly bad) and are driven by locally sourced electricity, which may be renewable or obtained by burning fossil resources. Any LCA results are therefore only relevant for a specific product produced in a specific location.
Despite these complexities, 3D printing continues to grow in popularity with hobbyists. Nearly 1 million entry-level 3D printers were sold in 2023, a 19% increase on the previous year. This figure is probably inflated by COVID boredom but industry projections anticipate a single-digit percentage increase for the next few years.
3D printing has also thrived as a low-cost, fast, and efficient tool for the production of prototypes. Designers can avoid the time and expense of traditional model making by sketching digitally and developing porotypes that can be produced overnight. This same technology has been used for small batch production but scaling up additive manufacturing to compete on cost with traditional mass manufacturing technologies has proved challenging.
One company pushing the boundaries in this field is Hilos Studio, a US-based company specializing in footwear. Hilos works with established brands and retailers and independent designers to develop footwear lines for sampling and production using 3D technology. Hilso has a cloud-based design platform specifically developed to aid footwear designers with the ability to turn ideas into 3D printable files, by sketching and importing mood boards. The company will then produce the complete footwear (or components) and fulfill orders as low as 100 pairs in just 30 days. The process not only saves time but reduces parts and eliminates manual labour, especially where the outsole, midsole, and insole are produced in a single unit.
In addition, the company claims their production methods use 99 percent less water than traditional manufacturing and creates only half the emissions while eliminating all the waste associated with cutting patterns from materials. (Although the source of energy consumed is not stated and the transport impacts of shipping small orders to resellers must be considered). Printed footwear can however, at least theoretically, be dismantled and recycled at the end of life (will all plastics fully recyclable). The company also claims that it typically costs between US$120,000 and $250,000 and takes between a year and 18 months to create moulds before an initial run can be produced. Using this system designers can get ideas into products in 90 days and avoid most of the upfront costs.
In 2022, 24 billion shoes were made, with a fifth of those heading for landfill before they were even sold. The Hilos system can produce on demand, eliminating much of this waste. Perhaps 3D printing really can help us build a better future.
See also:
3D printed parts reinforced with continuous carbon fibre