Advantages of 3D Printing for Circular Economy and Its Influence on Designers

DS 116: Proceedings of the DESIGN2022 17th International Design Conference

Year: 2022
Editor: Mario Štorga, Stanko Škec, Tomislav Martinec, Dorian Marjanović
Author: Youzhi Chen
Series: DESIGN
Institution: Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Section: Design for Sustainability
Page(s): 991-1000
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2022.101
ISSN: 2732-527X (Online)

Abstract

Based on the theoretical research of 3D printing and circular economy, combined with case studies, this paper analyzes the advantages of 3D printing in realizing circular economy and its influence on designers from the perspectives of “reduce”, “reuse”, “recycle” and distributed manufacturing. As a technological innovation, 3D printing not only promoted the transformation from linear economy to circular economy, but also had a certain impact on the role and skills of traditional designers.

Keywords: circular economy, 3D printing, distributed design, designer's skills, co-design