Backgrounds and goals of the project
»Strengthen reuse through repairs – exploit the potentials of 3D printing for spare part procurement« is the title of the newest project of the SUSTAINABLE DESIGN CENTER e.V.
Not really paying attention we press a switch. But instead of turning on the light or the toaster or the water bioler – the switch breaks . And in spite of the device itself being completely okay, we can’t operate it anymore. A spare part worth 35 cents often becomes the reason for throwing away a fully functional device. Because a repair would be to expensive and the spare part is – if at all – hard to get. So the mountain of domestic appliances is growing and growing.
Using 3D printing there is theoretically the possibility to produce spare parts at an affordable price on ones own. In practice this doesn’t work as fluently. This projects goal is to better use the sustainability potentials of 3D printing. To promote and support the reuse of devices and therefor saving resources that otherwise would be put into producing new ones.
Our goal is it to bring together people with 3D printing know-how from makerspaces and fab labs with initiators of repair cafés and repair shops. In collaboration we want to identify obstacles and best practices and develop steps for strengthen the potentials of 3D printing spare parts.
Therefore we will be initiating workshops in several cities. During the project phase Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Kassel, Halle, Darmstadt and Munich will be our testing cities. Together with actors of the repair scene we develop concepts that can be used as open source blueprints by other initiatives. Further more we want to identify better ways of networking between the actors for spreading the use of 3D printing of spare parts.
The project »Strengthen reuse through repairs – exploit the potentials of 3D printing for spare part procurement« started March 2017 and runs till September 2018. Right now we are in our research phase and meet up with actors and experts in the fields of repairs and 3D printing.
This project is funded by the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). Funding is provided by decision of the German Confederation.
