Castor Publishes Sustainability in Additive Manufacturing Trends Report

Castor, an industrial 3D printing software company, has released new research that indicates manufacturers can reduce carbon emissions through additive manufacturing (AM), showing that more than one-third of 3D printed parts can reduce carbon emissions.

The research is based on Castor’s latest addition to its software, a calculator that reveals the amount of CO2 emissions that can potentially be saved by using AM instead of traditional manufacturing.

The report emphasizes the environmental benefits of using AM over traditional manufacturing methods. It highlights different aspects where AM has strong CO2 emissions-saving potential as in complex geometries parts and spare parts that be produced on demand.

As an example, the report illustrates how the avoidance of the production and disposal of a single spare part over a 10-year period can lead to a significant reduction of 3 tons of CO₂ emissions — which is equivalent to the emissions produced by 18,000 kilometers traveled in a diesel automobile or 216 train trips between Paris and Amsterdam. The company says these findings demonstrate the potential for AM to make a significant impact on a company's carbon footprint.

“Business leaders are under increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions — from stakeholders, customers and from regulatory bodies. Companies must explore new innovative manufacturing processes if they are to become more environmentally-friendly,” says Omer Blaier, Castor’s co-founder and CEO. “We believe that the contribution of Additive Manufacturing to sustainability is growing, and we are committed to developing methods to reflect its benefits.” 

Castor’s software enables manufacturers to automatically analyze their parts and determine whether production with AM makes sense — from a technical, economical and now also sustainable point of view.

As stated in the report, Castor’s Carbon Emissions calculator is derived by analyzing parts through their various stages life cycle. The calculator’s considerations are aggregated from factors such as material production, product manufacturing, product use, transportation and part end-of-life.

The report is based on the data of more than 50,000 assemblies and parts that have been uploaded to Castor’s software over the past three years. The company gathered all the interesting trends that were identified and created a report that summarizes insights into AM as a sustainable way of production.

The company says this innovation provides companies with valuable information and transparent sustainability reporting on their parts’ CO2 emission, enabling them to drive more informed and sustainable decisions across the organization. 

The report is available for free download. 

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• Learn how Castor’s software can automatically identifies suitable parts for 3D printing using 2d drawings.

• Read about the integration of Castor’s part screening software into Ultimaker’s Digital Factory, enabling users to scan all of their parts at once, estimate the printability of parts with their Ultimaker printer, calculate the costs and lead time, and ultimately produce the parts directly with Ultimaker’s Digital Factory.