| |DECEMBER 20228CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONBy Jerome Stanley, Director of Global Sales, Höganäs ABShifting towards carbon-neutral operations is a priority for all industries, and as additive manufacturing (AM) is approaching industrialisation, it is helping businesses find new ways to reduce their environmental impact. There are several areas where AM could have a huge, positive influence once the right solutions are widely adopted. The use of construction steels in AM is one of these areas.Investing in additive manufacturing can help improve sustainability in a variety of ways while also being a way for many businesses to become more profitable and efficient. It can help reduce the number of steps in manufacturing, for example, as shapes that were impossible to make in a single process with traditional methods are now viable through 3D printing. It can also dramatically reduce lead time and help to reduce inventories of spare parts, and there is less waste as a result of AM processes as it is possible to use more precise amounts of raw material when compared to alternative options. Steels are the most widely used metal alloys in the industry. However, the adoption of construction steels has been slow as the AM industry has focused on the higher value applications in industries such as aerospace and medical. Expanding the AM market and promoting wider adoption of using construction steels in AM processes will help businesses become more efficient while reducing carbon footprint. Meeting industry demandsIn the past, additive manufacturing was considered too expensive to be able to produce components from traditional construction steel. Construction steel powder offerings practically did not exist in the market, and knowledge regarding manufacturing parameters has been missing. These issues have prevented the wider acceptance of AM construction steels. However, Höganäs knows the positive impact that a broader range of viable materials could have on the industry, and has designed a portfolio of construction steels specifically engineered to meet industry demands."At Höganäs, we believe additive manufacturing is coming into its industrialisation phase," says Jerome Stanley, Director of Global Sales for Customisation Technologies at Höganäs. "As we want the benefits of AM to be available to all industries, we have developed a wide-ranging portfolio of products, and within that we can provide optimal solutions for many different industry applications."Low-alloyed construction steels can be used in the production of many different types of components which can be found anywhere from the cars we drive to the heavy machinery and tools used on the industrial production shop floor. It's also common in all industries that broken spare parts have to be replaced in a very short time to be able to quickly resume operations and avoid extensive losses associated with production downtime. AM of construction steels can be specifically useful in this type of scenario. Being able to produce spare parts on-demand means it is possible to reconsider the need for spare parts inventory, which leads to both economical gain and improved sustainability. "We have already seen how much of a difference AM can make in terms of both resource and process efficiency," says Denis Oshchepkov, Product Manager at Höganäs, "and with our range of construction steels we are making AM more viable to all industries that still rely on other methods for their production. In addition to the efficiency gains, these products can help more industries move towards net zero carbon emissions."BUILDING EXCELLENCE WITH ADDITIVE MANUFACTURINGJerome Stanley
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