Antarctic Bear learned that in February 2022, Yale University published a study entitled "The First Environmental Assessment of 3D Printed Shoes". The research report pointed out that the traditional footwear industry "every 5 pairs of shoes manufactured, there is a pair can not be sold", which causes waste, while the production process of the footwear industry seriously endangers the ecological environment of the earth, and the use of 3D printing technology in the shoe supply chain can effectively reduce the harm caused by the footwear industry to the environment.
△ 3D printed sole, source: 3D print
The study was led by a team of graduate students from Yale's Center for Business and the Environment at HILOS, a 3D printing footwear startup in Portland, Oregon, and SUPPLY CHAIN partners BASFForward AM, HP 3D Printing, additive Manufacturing Technologies ( AMT) with the assistance of the done. HILOS used HP's Multi JetFusion (multi-jet melt 3D printing technology) to make BASF's Ultrasint TPU material into a sole.
The First Environmental Assessment of 3D Printed Shoes focuses on three core issues:
●How does the 3D printing shoe making process compare with the traditional shoe making process?
Where is this technology likely to have the greatest impact on the environment?
● Where is the direction of future improvement and how to improve?
The study compared the 3D printed footwear industry with the "traditional" footwear industry in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, water consumption, and components and labor in the manufacturing process. It has been proved that the use of 3D printing technology in the field of footwear can reduce the harm caused by the footwear industry to the environment.
△ 3D printed shoes compared with traditional shoes, source: 3D print
The study's authors said: "By reducing the number of parts and simplifying product assembly, 3D printing can reduce total emissions by 48% even at low economies of scale." In addition, 3D printing can help the footwear industry achieve ecological sustainability, for the simple reason that 3D printing manufacturing can be produced on demand, which means that every pair of shoes will be sold. This means that the same number of shoes are sold while fewer shoes are actually produced, improving supply chain efficiency at every step of the process, avoiding both the waste of the use of initial materials and the waste generated at each step. ”
△ 3D printed sole, source: 3D print
In addition to the progress that HILOS has made in the field of economic recycling, it has also concluded that the current progress in the recyclability and recycling of materials for 3D printing is far less than the progress it has made with minimizing carbon emissions in the supply chain.
Therefore, HILOS does not try to solve all the problems at once, but rather favors focusing on supply chain issues first and then solving other problems. Once 3D printing successfully reduces the costs and emissions associated with the inefficient supply chain of the traditional footwear industry, companies can "reinvest this profit in manufacturing, which in turn improves the quality, durability and longevity of product delivery, and further reduces costs." "
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