Enabling Circular Christmas with Robotic LFAM

Violetta Nespolo

fromCaracol

17 Jan, 2023

Caracol | Christmas 2023

To send its Christmas wishes Caracol worked on a project that is representative of its values and work as an Additive Manufacturing company.

3D Printing

- additive manufacturing

- circular economy

- digital fabrication

- materials

Working with polymers and composites, Caracol has always felt it had a responsibility in finding ways to use the material it handles in the best way: first of all by recycling the waste generated through processes like CNC and subtractive tech (that traditionally generates large quantities of waste), upcycling this material with the support of specialized partners, and then finding new ways to use recycled materials to manufacture new applications through the company's Large Format Additive Manufacturing technology (Heron AM^TM).

Caracol developed its LFAM system as a robotized extrusion head, a dedicated software platform for the most complex tool paths, and with direct and continuous feeding of composites and polymers in pellet form. This allows the platform to use both virgin and recycled material (e.g., shreds, scraps, and more).

Through this Christmas project, the company wanted to provide an example of what the company can do thanks to Additive Manufacturing, a way to stimulate companies also in advanced sectors to potentially investigate how they can introduce recycled materials within their production processes.

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3D Printed Wind Blade Lamination Tool from Recycled Materials

Large Format Additive Manufacturing can be game-changing in product and process optimization, contributing to fighting climate breakdown. For the project Demo4Green - 𝗥𝗔𝗥𝗲-𝗪𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘, Caracol used recycled glass fibers and polypropylene to produce a lamination tool for micro wind turbines.

Violetta Nespolo

fromCaracol

15 Feb, 2023

3D Printing

- additive manufacturing

- circular economy

- digital fabrication

- robotics

Large Format Additive Manufacturing solutions can play a game-changing role in product and process optimization, contributing to fighting climate breakdown. With Caracol's LFAM system Heron AM it was possible to support the ultimate purpose of circular economy, as demonstrated with the research project Demo4Green - 𝗥𝗔𝗥𝗲-𝗪𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘 “𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗪𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲”, a project organized by EIT Manufacturing and MADE Competence Center 4.0 in Italy.

Using recycled glass fibers and polypropylene, the company has been working to produce components for the energy sector. The company focused its effort on developing a glass fiber lamination tool for micro wind turbine blades (these turbines are used in urban and rural areas to generate power for factories, offices, buildings, ...).

With its LFAM system HeronAM, Caracol 3D printed a lamination tool for micro wind turbines out of recycled material, achieving and providing evidence of several tangible benefits if compared with traditional processes, such as:

✔️ improved lead time by 50%

✔️ increased raw material saving by 72%

✔️ enhanced waste reduction by 90% compared

The application was validated also from a technical standpoint. The dimensional tolerances and surface roughness of the component were maintained, while the material porosity was equal to a maximum of 0.2 mm.

Future Proofing Plastics

A future-proof plastics industry will include biobased products and a closed loop of production and product recycling.

18 Aug, 2022

Kunststoffenbeurs is the annual trade show for the Benelux plastics industry to share knowledge, celebrate innovation and make cutting-edge advances visible. The goal: sharing knowledge to help the industry in the fight against plastic pollution, colloquially known as plastic soup. As with previous editions, the 2022 Kunststoffenbeurs will also pay extensive attention to sustainability, recycling, redesign, and reduction of CO2 footprint.

In this article, we share an overview of the initiatives found at Kunststoffenbeurs 2022, held at Brabanthallen, 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, on 14 and 15 September.

A future-forward plastic industry

The Dutch government has set the ambitious goal to achieve 50% less raw material consumption in 2030 and implement a full circular plastics economy by 2050. The European Union-wide goals are just as ambitious and include banning all single-use plastics and increasing the demand for recycled plastics.^[1]

The circular economy is an economic model that practices producing materials designed to be used to their highest potential and can be circulated within the system without the release of harmful emissions. This guarantees to secure finite resources and facilitates sustainable growth.^[2,3] This model has a positive impact on the well-being of people, society, and planet Earth by enabling sustainable growth and securing resources for the future.

As an innovative sector, the plastics and rubber industry is at the forefront of this ambitious change and is continuously working on making (end) products more sustainable. For example, 30% of all plastic waste in the Netherlands is recycled or reused and more and more plastics are biobased or biodegradable, while the use of raw materials such as petroleum is significantly reduced.

Sustainability does not stop at the (end) product. The industry works on t