A Polish-German team made up of scientists and specialists from companies in the additive technology sector is researching a method for regenerating used polyamide powders. This will allow the reuse in 3D printing of thousands of tonnes of this material, which is becoming a difficult waste to manage every year. The leader of the research group is the Wrocław University of Science and Technology.
The PowdeREUSE project has received more than one million euros in funding from the National Centre for Research and Development as part of the M-ERA.NET 3 Call network, the university reports.
The research concerns the most popular group of plastic powders used in selective laser sintering (SLS) – or incremental technology, popularly known as 3D printing. After each production process, approximately 70-80 per cent of the waste, i.e. thermally degraded powder, remains. Researchers from Poland and Germany are working on a method to regenerate it.
