3D Printing

Magnum (the ice cream people) have commissioned Dutch designer Iris van Herpen to design and craft a dress inspired by their own vegan ice cream. That means using sustainable and non-animal based materials. The dress has been designed, and it was all made possible by use of 3D printed bioplastics made from algae and cocoa bean husks. You can see the dress, which was shown at this year’s Paris Fashion Week in the image below. Cocoa bean husks (Image credit: Magnum) The dress, according to press materials, features plantlike body embellishments which are copper-coated, draped and entwined with upcycled and organza, while the cocoa husk elements were 3D printed. What is interesting about this story is the use of cocoa husks in the plastic, and how algae is used rather than a traditional consumer plastic in the blend. Cocoa seeds grow in husks, and these husks form a huge amount…    read more 

Hemp has historically been used for a wide range of applications spanning from rope production and textile manufacture, through to more modern day applications such as its usage in hemp-based plastics. Hemp fibers are very strong, you see, and they are also very cheap. It has also been used as a construction material named Hempcrete for quite some time (thousands of years in fact), and now Hempcrete is getting the AM treatment thanks to a team of researchers at Texas A&M University. “No officer, those are my building materials.” (Image credit: Texas A&M University) The researchers, funded by a $3.74 million grant from the Department of Energy, are now planning to 3d print buildings with millenia-old building material. Hempcrete consists of hemp particulate, lime and sand. The project is funded under the HESTIA program which aims to increase the total amount of carbon stored in buildings to create carbon sinks,…    read more 

Space architecture firm AI SpaceFactory has unveiled their plan for a lunar habitat, which has been designed for additive manufacturing on the Moon’s surface. The lunar structure concept, named “LINA” has been designed with inputs from engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and marks the first time that the agency has collaborated with a private partner in lunar habitat design. Regolith all over it (Image credit: AI SpaceFactory) LINA’s will be 3D printed with a lunar regolith polymer composite made with materials found or manufactured on the Moon, and the structures will feature an ultra-thin shell with 3d printed load-bearing arches. The thin structure will be buried under a 2.7-meter thick, protective regolith overburden. The result is a lightweight, mass optimized structure that functions as defense against radiation and the extreme lunar environment. LINA is proposed to be situated at Shackleton Crater, on the Moon’s south pole, which contains water…    read more 

California and Arizona based battery company Ampcera Inc. has been awarded funds to develop 3D printed lithium-ion batteries. Ampcrea, along with partners at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have received $1.5 million USD in funding from the Department of Energy to develop a safer lithium battery with higher power and energy densities using a low-cost dry additive manufacturing process. Ampcera deals with the development and commercialization of high-performance solid-state electrolyte materials for next-generation lithium batteries. It is hoped that the partnership with the national laboratory will develop innovative manufacturing processes for lithium-ion batteries and reduce time-to-market. In addition, the process is apparently “environmentally benign” , which is why it is one of six Energy Systems projects selected for an award from DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office to reduce industrial emissions and manufacture clean energy technologies. The proposed dry additive manufacturing technology is highly energy-efficient with more than 10 times the throughput…    read more 

We have all read about so-called bioplastics. They are made from biological materials such as corn. Many bioplastics do not meet the requirements currently satisfied by oil-based commodity plastics such as PET though. PET, used extensively in plastic bottles, is valued for its low cost, ease of manufacture, and mechanical, thermal and chemical stability in a range of environments. These are all desirable features when manufacturing food-safe containers such as drinks bottles. Many bioplastics simply fail to live up to these requirements. In addition, not all bioplastics are as ecologically friendly as they are marketed to be. However, a new type of plastic made from biomass might be on the horizon thanks to a team of researchers from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) who have been producing stable yet degradable plastics from lignocellulose. Lignocellulose can come from non-edible plant matter and is the most abundant raw material on Earth…    read more