REMADE Funds $4.86M in Recycling Tech, Including 3D Printer Repair

What REMADE just funded

The REMADE Institute, a public-private group backed by the U.S. Department of Energy, announced $4.86 million for 10 new demonstration projects. The money pushes each technology from Technology Readiness Level 6 toward 7, the stage where lab work has to prove it can survive contact with a real factory floor.

Since 2017 the institute has backed 103 projects worth about $104 million. This seventh round adds new partners alongside names like Caterpillar, John Deere, Michelin, Nike, Adidas, MIT, and Volvo.

Where 3D printing actually shows up

One grant goes to Rochester Institute of Technology and Synergy Additive Manufacturing for high-speed laser cladding repair of cast iron diesel engine blocks. Laser cladding is an additive process: it lays metal powder into a melt pool to rebuild worn surfaces instead of scrapping the part. That is a direct line from the 3D printing world into heavy industry.

Other projects pull valuable material back into circulation. One recovers rare earth oxides from electronic scrap. Another reclaims aerospace and automotive aluminum. A third uses computer vision and AI to sort e-waste as it arrives. None of those are printers, but they all change how cheap and how clean the feedstock for making things can become.

Why makers should care

Cheaper recycled metal and recovered plastics tend to show up eventually as lower filament and resin prices, and as more reliable domestic supply. The bigger story is the direction of travel. When federal money treats remanufacturing and recycling as manufacturing problems to solve rather than waste to bury, the people printing parts at home benefit from the same recovered materials.

REMADE's full list covers textile-to-textile recycling, paper fiber recovery, secondary steel for tires, and circular design tools baked into CAD. It is a wide sweep, but the throughline is simple: keep more material in play, and making things gets cheaper and less fragile.