聚合物供应商INEOS Styrolutionhas developed an experimental styrenics-based 3D printing powder which could result in energy savings of 67% when compared to 3D printing with traditional PA12.
The impressive figure (which takes into account the whole life cycle) is the result of almost three years of testing as part of the company’s PolySLS project, which was funded by the德国经济事务和能源部。Polysls于2020年11月正式结束，旨在为SLS 3D打印过程开发一种新型的基于苯乙烯的聚合物粉末，重点关注节能和环境可持续性。
Ineos Styrolution的市场创新战略总监Yvonne Van Veen指出：“随着增材制造业以非常高的速度增长，我们很兴奋，我们开发了一种材料，不仅有助于节能和可持续的生产，雷电竞充值而且是一种简单的材料在打印过程中处理。”
The sustainability of polymer-based SLS
选择性激光烧结或SLS是一种粉末床融合技术，它使用高功率激光器将原材料融化为固体层。根据化学专家进行的最近的生命周期分析研究BASF和软件开发人员实现， 大约SLS中使用的粉末的50％reportedly becomes waste. While recycling used powder is possible, the practice often results in issues that make 3D printed parts unsuitable for performance-dependent engineering applications.
核心问题是一个称为“橙皮”效果的表面纹理问题，一旦粉末离开构建室就会导致收缩。这通常是通过将其与新鲜粉末混合在一起来解决的，但这与试图通过回收的可持续性违反了可持续性。
Despite its shortcomings, 3D printing is still largely hailed as ‘sustainable’. A recent Materialise survey indicated that 76% of manufacturers believed that additive manufacturing was a more sustainable method of production than its conventional manufacturing counterparts.
事实上，3D打印的可持续性并不是简单的是/否困境。实际上，根据university research paper commissioned by theAdditive Manufacturer Green Trade Association（amgta），3D打印有一个较高的平均碳足迹，每公斤处理的材料，而不是常规制造。但是，这主要取决于部分几何和生产量，因为它比大型机器简单固体立方体更可取，而最好是3D打印一小部分的复杂晶格。
A similar conclusion was reached by麻省理工学院，耶鲁大学和诺丁汉大学的研究人员。同样，将自己更好地借给添加剂过程的部分几何形状被认为是增强了3D印刷作为“绿色技术”的声誉。
用于3D打印的基于造型的聚合物
从Ineos研究的结果来看，节省的能源的最高结果是较低的过程温度以及较短的加热和冷却阶段的直接结果。因此，完成印刷作业所需的时间大大减少了。具体而言，该公司的苯乙烯粉末的平均处理时间比PA12短7.5％。但是，当考虑到材料生产时，总能源节省几乎增加了两倍，达到67％，表明在可持续性方面的粉末回收有多大的影响。
Bianca Wilhelmus, Global Application Development Manager at INEOS and Project Lead for PolySLS, sees great potential for the styrene material family: “Styrenics-based materials continue to amaze me. Even 90 years after the first production of polystyrene, there are still new things to explore. Styrenics-based materials have incredible, beneficial properties.”
As it stands, the new material has only seen use within the PolySLS project. INEOS has stated that future commercial availability will be dependent on the results of further testing, product demand, and production capacity.
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特色图显示了由Ineos制造的基于遗传的聚合物珠。通过Ineos样式说明照片。
