这latest installment of 3D Printing Industry’s series on3D printing and renewable energyfocuses on how additive manufacturing is contributing to decarbonization efforts within the industry.
Metal 3D printing start-upSeurat技术, backed by the likes ofPorscheandXerox, is one such firm deploying the technology to this end, having just announced its first print depot is powered entirely by green energy.
“Additive manufacturing is not just beneficial to the energy generation industry, it is foundational,” says the company’s CEO and Co-founder James DeMuth.
DeMuth discusses how Seurat’s technology is driving the firm’s progress toward decarbonizing not only its own manufacturing operations but also the carbon footprint of its customers, as well as calling for others in the industry to follow suit.
According to the US环保局（EPA），工业部门负责美国24％的排放, a figure that excludes the environmental impact of shipping parts across the globe. As such, action is needed by firms to advance to a newer, greener era of manufacturing, spurred on by the可再生能源技术的进步在过去的几年中。
Seurat的区域印刷技术
According to DeMuth, Seurat was founded with the goal of solving manufacturing problems in the energy industry, starting with the LIFE fusion power plant design originated atLawrence Livermore National Laboratory。
“Fundamentally anything that is geometrically dependent, like nuclear or solar, or utilizes rotating components, such as anything with a turbine or compressor like wind, hydro, tidal or geothermal, or the things that energy powers such as cars, planes, and trains, benefits from advanced designs enabled by additive manufacturing,” says DeMuth.
Area Printingis an LPBF 3D printing process that decouples speed and resolution to overcome common tradeoffs regarding speed, quality, and scale. The technology is the result of decades of laser and optics management stemming from LLNL, where DeMuth co-invented the technology in 2011. He later co-founded Seurat in 2015, and the firm now has over 130 granted and pending patents, as well as an exclusive license on the Area Printing technology.
Demuth解释说：“区域打印将单个强大的激光束分成多达230万个单独的光束。”“可以将30kW激光像素的每个像素编程为封锁或启用。由于每个像素有效地定义了激光斑点，可以将串行过程变成非常平行的，最终代表生产率的10倍，与第一代印刷相比，生产率增加了10倍，因此可以立即焊接一大块金属粉末。机器。”
In terms of applications, many of the firm’s customers are in the automotive, consumer electronics, energy, and other industrial fields where high-volume production business exists. Fundamentally, Area Printing enables them to scale their production rates, allowing for the production cost of parts to drop by more than 10 times where they are today, DeMuth says.
他补充说：“将零件的成本降低到传统制造方法以下，从本质上讲，添加剂制造业一直在等待的'离开监狱卡'。”雷电竞充值
脱碳制造
为了脱碳制造，Seurat的区域印刷技术使公司的客户可以偏离铸造工艺，这些过程产生了相当于每吨金属一桶油的排放。常规铸造占全球1万亿美元金属部分制造市场的20％，并在此过程中使用天然气和可乐，而天然气和可乐又产生了重大的排放。
这Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) recently sounded a‘code red for humanity’关于气候变化，促使Seurat和其他人加大了脱碳的努力。预计区域印刷将抵消相当于60亿加仑汽油的同龄人，这与美国加速国内清洁能源制造的目标相吻合。
“By 2030, we expect to offset up to 2gt of CO2 annually as customers ramp up production and replace applications produced by metal casting,” says DeMuth. “We are working on verifying our projections following ISO 14064 guidance, an international standard that addresses the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, and we’re excited to exponentially increase our positive impact going forward.”
该公司的业务模型是作为其系统的合同制造商运营，并通过其符合客户应用程序Area Printing Production (APP) program。通过APP程序，Seurat验证了材料属性，处理可重复性，并确保它可以在高量制造设置中始终如一地生产应用程序。
So far, eight companies are engaged in the APP program, and are active across a wide range of industries, including automotive, aerospace, energy, and consumer electronics. Seurat has started its first commercial program for an automotive application, and is reportedly booked at capacity until Q3 2022.
“While scaling metal additive manufacturing to outcompete casting is very exciting for our industry, even more exciting is the prospect of winning back jobs, rebuilding trade skills, and enabling localized manufacturing – all in a sustainable way,” DeMuth says.
“If Seurat is successful – and it will take an ecosystem of inventors and policymakers to help us – the economic and environmental implications will change our future generations.”
Powered by green energy
Seurat is building its first print depot in Wilmington, Massachusetts, which DeMuth believes will be a “seismic step” forward. The factory, which will 3D print critical parts for airplanes, cars, and “just about anything else”, will be 100 percent driven by wind and solar power, delivered through the Reading Municipal Light Department’s newRenewable Choice program。
Demuth表示：“我很早就意识到制造业与能源密切相关。”“一旦我们找到一种与现有技术具有成本竞争力的制造方法，清洁能源将变得更便宜。随着IPCC最近召集气候变化的灾难性影响，现在是时候发生变化了。”
In addition to its print depot, Seurat is aiming for its future locations to be entirely powered by renewable energy so that its customers can reap the benefits of metal 3D printing while eliminating emissions from what DeMuth calls “dirty manufacturing.”
他说，Seurat转向100％的绿色能源是一个主动的举动，该公司呼吁其同行效仿。他说：“在一起，我们可以产生重大的改变，建立更清洁的能量未来。”
By 2030, the firm hopes to make it more affordable to manufacture silverware via Area Printing in the US than it would be to forge using carbon-emitting processes overseas. The company also claims that each future generation of its machines will be 10 times faster than the previous one, and aims to one day co-locate with renewable energy power plants or enter into joint ventures to source its own green energy as it scales its print depots.
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Featured image showsChief Scientist Andy Bayramian adjusts waveplate to complete optics upgrade on Seurat’s R&D system. Photo via Seurat Technologies.
