Resource Consumption of Additive Manufacturing

Abstract Since the 1980's, additive manufacturing (AM) has gradually advanced from rapid prototyping applications towards fabricating endconsumer products. Many small companies may prefer accessing AM technologies through service providers offering production services as result-oriented Industrial Product-Service System (IPSS) rather than investing in their own production line. This study investigated potential benefits of IPSS using system dynamics modeling to study resource demands between two situations: one where an IPSS approach is used and one that is the traditional ownership of production equipment. This study concluded that AM service providers with demand-varying customers could increase service performance and maximize use of production equipment

Phosphate solubilizing ability of two Arctic Aspergillus niger strains

Many filamentous fungi were isolated from the soils of Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, and were screened in vitro for their phosphate solubilizing ability. Two strains of Aspergillus niger showed good tricalcium phosphate (TCP) solubilizing ability in Pikovskaya's medium. The TCP solubilization index was calculated at varying levels of pH and temperatures. The ability of Aspergillus niger strain-1 to solubilize and release inorganic-P was 285 µg ml–1, while Aspergillus niger strain-2 solubilized 262 µg ml–1 from 0.5% TCP after seven days. This is the first report of TCP solubilization by Arctic strains that may serve as very good phosphate solubilizers in the form of biofertilizer