Our Common Future: Can sustainable products be produced using additive manufacturing?

The project, funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation, deals with the research question: "Can sustainable products be produced with the aid of additive manufacturing (3D printers)?" It is planned to inspire the students of the Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium in Lebach with current sustainability research. By printing out everyday products with recycled plastic material, the pupils are to develop knowledge-based answers.

To this end, various plastics (e.g. waste from 3D printing, packaging materials) are first shredded, melted and extruded into plastic material (filament) for 3D printing. By varying the proportion of recycled and new material, the pupils are shown possibilities to influence the production possibilities in their research. Tensile specimens are produced from the various mixtures and material parameters are determined and evaluated experimentally.

For example, it will be investigated whether it is possible to recycle PET bottles for 3D printing. Subsequently, new and recycled material is used to produce spare parts using 3D scanning and 3D printing. Defective parts are captured with the existing 3D scanners, reworked and printed out as spare parts. Finally, the findings are summarized and presented to the public.