Recyclable Feedstocks for Additive Manufacturing

About this technology

Overview

Innovators at the NASA Langley Research Center have developed a manufacturing technique to generate recyclable feedstocks for on-demand additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is a rapidly advancing art with significant recent improvements in starting materials. One common limitation has been that produced articles cannot be recycled without substantial energy costs. Development of a manufacturing technique that can generate precise, mechanically robust articles that could be reverted to feedstock for use in subsequent article manufacturing would be highly desirable for applications including long duration extra-terrestrial exploration mission planning. NASA's new manufacturing technique uses polymer-coated epoxy micro-particle systems as a recyclable feedstock material that can be used not only for in-space additive manufacturing during long-term human spaceflight but also for a wealth of applications on Earth. The resulting articles are more chemically and mechanically robust compared to the state-of-the-art materials used for most 3D printing applications.