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Anton Shilov Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
edzieba I'd like to see that backed up with a full supply chain analysis. Machined bulk materials are relatively trivial to recycle: keep the swarf separated, clean it of cutting fluid, and it's ready to go back to the foundry, or even be melted and recast directly for some alloys. But for 3D printing, the powders are not as easy to handle. You might be able to get away with re-using already cycled powder one or two times, but that comes with a compromise in quality: the powders oxidise very rapidly once the delivery container is unsealed which affects metallurgy and beam melting behaviour (albedo change, enthalpy change, chemical change, etc), and beam spill produced partially sintered multi-particle 'clumps' that are worthless for use (result in voids) so need to be filtered out, which is easier said than done for metallic powders that have awkward flow characteristics and already love to clump without agitation (why powder spreaders in metallic particle bed fusion machines are so finicky). That means recycling the unused powder is far more of a challenge than recycling metallic swarf, with a far greater energy input needed to get that oxidised powder back to useable metal. The basic "raw stock in / finished part out" mass percentage may be better than bulk machining, but I doubt it's an improvement once you stop ignoring the rest of the recycling and reuse process. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/apple-3d-prints-titanium-chassis-for-apple-watch-additive-manufacturing-cuts-raw-material-usage-in-half#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.