Sustainable Digital Manufacturing and Design

Photo: Rollerblades with automatically designed and 3D printed wheels, Source: EDAC/ETH Zürich

The vision for Additive Manufacturing (AM) is to be able to print "almost anything" on demand and in three dimensions. However, we must also start thinking about responsible use of AM as one technology set within digital manufacturing. This area focuses on the material dimension of sustainable AM and other manufacturing processes in general to create zero-waste, minimum material, non-toxic, sustainable digital manufacturing processes.

To address this challenge the tasks of developing new materials, manufacturing processes and design methods are investigated across the whole product lifecycle from intelligent material choice and product design to its manufacture and final re-use, re-manufacture, recycling and disposal.

As a highly interdisciplinary area, a collaborative research effort will be formed among material science, engineering and manufacturing. Potential applications include eliminating waste and reducing material in printing prototypes and parts, re-manufactured and recyclable customized products, e.g. prosthetics, and lightweight structures.

Selected Research Projects

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers and Additive Manufacturing

Sustainable Design of 4D Printed Active Systems