As more actions are taken to achieve a fully sustainable environment,
we gradually learn that methods other than LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) can be used to assist manufacturers in measuring data.
CASTOR, a software company, has created a CO2 Emission Calculator tool to assist manufacturers in lowering their CO2 emissions.
The firm has always focused its core business on developing software solutions that enable part identification for additive manufacturing (AM) through a series of geometric and economic analyses.
The company has improved its solutions over the years; with this new tool,
manufacturers can automatically identify 3D printable part designs with environmental benefits and calculate potential emissions savings.
Siemens recently unveiled a similar tool that allows organizations to measure,
simulate,
reduce, and track the carbon footprint of their products early in the development process.
CASTOR’s CO2 analysis takes into account a variety of parameters throughout the product’s entire lifecycle.
While there is a good chance that many parts will be excluded from this newly developed process,
the importance of CO2 measurement may cause a paradigm shift for those firms embarking on their AM journey,
as there will be a strong incentive to produce AM parts that are directly optimized for CO2 reduction.
Given the impending climate catastrophe, others will be forced to follow suit.
In today’s market,
there is a clear need to assess the “sustainability of 3D Printing” and take into account all of the metrics that influence its place in the global supply chain.
To make smarter decisions that align with their sustainability goals,
manufacturers need powerful analysis software packages to help them automatically calculate CO2 emissions,
cost per part, material costs, and other elements that play into 3d printing, according to CASTOR’s website.
