SAF ReLife solution enhances sustainability of PA12 powder.
One of the key advantages additive manufacturing (AM) is supposed to enjoy over traditional manufacturing methods, such as casting or machining, is the sustainability of 3D printing technology. Case in point: a new software tool from Stratasys called SAF ReLife that can help engineers transform the waste polyamide 12 (PA12) powder from past 3D prints into new parts.
According to the company, SAF ReLife can efficiently repurpose waste PA12 powder from powder bed fusion printers — including high-speed sintering, selective laser sintering (SLS) and jetting build processes — for use within the Stratasys H350 printer. As a result, manufacturers can potentially lower their cost per additive part, improve material efficiency and reduce their overall carbon footprint per build.
“SAF ReLife gives customers a unique ability to make high-quality parts with powder considered waste from other polymer powder bed fusion processes,” said Neil Hopkinson, VP of additive manufacturing technology at Stratasys in a press release. “Our patented unidirectional print-and-fuse architecture and thermal control uniquely enable this capability at production volumes.”
Wehl Green, a Spanish service bureau, beta tested SAF ReLife and reported saving 20% in total cost per part, as well as a reduction in waste.
“By utilizing the SAF ReLife technology, we’ve cut production costs while producing parts that meet strict industrial specifications. It’s a game-changer for our competitiveness,” said Javier García, manager and co-founder of Wehl Green in the same press release.
To determine the technology’s environmental impact, Stratasys partnered with Fraunhofer IPA to conduct a third-party life cycle assessment and validate its environmental benefits. Stratasys claims that Fraunhofer’s study showed that repurposing PA12 waste from powder bed print processes in SAF production can reduce a user’s carbon footprint up to 89% compared to standard production with PA12.
“Our life cycle assessment demonstrates that Stratasys’ SAF ReLife PA12 solution can reduce the carbon footprint of the reference print job by 43% with the German electricity mix and by as much as 89% when powered by renewable energy sources, compared to standard PA12,” said Chantal Rietdorf, M.Sc., Research Associate at Fraunhofer.
Some points to note about the study:
- The system boundaries were defined as cradle-to-gate, with the functional unit specified as one reference print job
- Energy consumption measurements were taken at the Fraunhofer IPA for the reference print job
- Material consumption data was obtained from the build report. For the standard PA12, new powder share was assumed to be 30%; for ReLife PA12 the share was 100%
- ackground data modeling for HAF and energy consumption utilized the Ecoinvent 3.9 database
- The emission factor for standard PA12 was sourced from the literature, while the environmental impacts of SAF ReLife PA12 were counted as zero, since it’s a byproduct of another process
- Greenhouse gas emissions were calculated using the GWP100 IPCC2013 impact assessment method.
More information about SAF ReLife will be available at the Stratasys booth at Formnext 2024.
