Autonomous portable larger-scale additive manufacturing technology for recycled plastics and standard thermoplastics (Lava3D)

塑料被认为是世界范围内最严重的环境问题之一，因此，回收塑料的需求在全球工业中正在加速增长。根据市场数据预测，截至2020年，再生塑料的市场产业价值为50.01亿加元，预计到2025年将达到684.3亿加元。与塑料相关的高污染、温室气体排放、垃圾填埋场的短缺以及在水体中处理废旧塑料，严重威胁着我们的生态系统。此外，资源短缺和对新塑料材料的需求正在推动传统制造技术的界限，使用再生塑料而不是原始热塑性塑料。因此，在两年的时间里，阿尔伯塔大学的研究人员的目标是用一种快速、更快、强大、自动化、便携式和负担得起的大规模增材制造技术来支持加拿大市场，通过使用回收塑料来帮助保护环境。提出的技术还将与原始材料和多材料3D打印兼容，以满足强度要求，支持加拿大的资源型工业。拟议的更快的聚合物增材制造工艺也将支持在大流行期间对个人防护口罩等个人防护用品组件的大规模生产日益增长的需求。

Plastics are considered as one of the most growing world-wide problems to the environment, and as a result, the need for recycling plastic is gaining speed in the global industry. According to Market Data Forecast, as of 2020, the market industry of recycled plastic is valued at 50.01 Billion CAD, and it is estimated to reach 68.43 billion CAD by the year 2025. The high pollution associated with plastics, GHG emission, shortage of landfill areas, and disposal of utilized plastics in the water bodies, are serious threats to our ecosystem. Besides, the shortage of resources and requirements for new plastic materials is pushing the boundaries of conventional manufacturing technologies to use recycled plastics over virgin thermoplastics. Therefore, over a span of two years, the researchers at the University of Alberta aims to support the Canadian market with a speedy, faster, robust, automated, portable and affordable large-scale additive manufacturing technology to help protect the environment by using recycled plastics. The technology proposed will also be compatible to work with virgin material and multi-material 3D printing for strength-to-requirements to support resource-based Industry in Canada. The proposed faster rate of polymer AM process will also support the growing need for mass-production of PPE components during the pandemic e.g. personal protective respirators.