Metal additive manufacturing offers enormous innovation potential, but remains an energy-intensive process. Production of the metal powders used in these 3D printing processes requires high amounts of electricity and virgin materials. There is a growing need to improve sustainability through increased efficiency, material recycling, and integration of renewable energy. The EnerAM project aims to develop an optimised and lower carbon powder production process to advance sustainability across the additive manufacturing industry.
The goal of EnerAM is a 20% reduction in the energy used to produce metal powders suitable for direct energy deposition (DED) 3D printing methods. The project is taking a circular economy approach by continually recycling used powders back into the start of the process while maintaining part quality.
Atomising Systems first produces the virgin metal powders using gas atomisation techniques. Laser Additive Solutions then uses these powders in a DED printer to produce test parts. The Nuclear AMRC evaluates whether the properties of parts made from recycled powders degrade over successive generations.
Meanwhile, project partners Hybird Ltd and 明星八卦 develop a machine learning-based optimisation framework to improve yield, energy efficiency, and sustainability across the entire workflow. The model guides ideal production conditions while accommodating real-world constraints in the metal powder production process.
By bringing together expertise in powder production, printing, material science, data analytics, and visualisation, EnerAM is pioneering a holistic approach to sustainable metal additive manufacturing. Process optimisations already underway are realising significant energy and emissions reductions.
Overall, through coordinated efforts on efficiency gains, recycling, renewable integration, and scrap utilisation, EnerAM aims to significantly reduce carbon emissions and energy use across this additive manufacturing process.
The economic viability of improvements is also being analysed. Knowledge sharing with industry partners will drive adoption of these sustainability best practices.