Friday, November 16, 2018
Pulped paper replaces plastic as the raw material for this 3D printer
newatlas.com: With a few notable exceptions, the majority of objects removed from a 3D printer bed are fashioned using plastic. But plastic has a nasty habit of ruining our environment at the end of its useful life. Designer Beer Holthuis looked for a more sustainable alternative, and built a 3D printer that extrudes paper pulp to build three-dimensional objects.
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This is really interesting to me because I grew up with an environmental scientist for a mother so reduce, reuse, recycle was a daily mantra for me. And then later it was really only reduce as much as possible. When 3-d printers became more popular I wanted to learn how to use one, but I never found the time to be able to take a class. I am super excited to see that they have evolved to the point where they combine technology and environmentalism to create a mixture of two sciences. I think it is amazing that they are finally replacing plastic with recycled paper because plastic is a major pollutant. I think that it is kind of sad that people figured out how to 3-d print edible things before using paper but I am glad that this is now avaliable. 3-D printing is really evolved now and seeing doctors able to even print some organs is a lead forward in science.
You would think that these days, with most people being more and more environmentally cautious, that we would be building our technology as environmentally friendly as we can from the beginning, but I guess we still have some work to do. It is nice to read about however, this innovation for such a growing way of production. Although the paper is not as clean as the plastic, It is still pretty durable and just as efficient. It is interesting to see that the paper comes out in a similar fashion to the plastic. I would like to know who would be opposed to this seemingly better method and why. The article mentioned that it perhaps doesn't look as clean as the plastic does, but as long as the printed item is precise, I don't see why printing as to be that aesthetically pleasing. Maybe paper pulp printed items can be used for all of the test products and the final versions can be made with plastic.
Heck yes! This is so cool! I never really thought about 3d printing with anything other than plastic, which is silly. But paper pulp seems just so outlandish. Like, how can it hold its shape? I imagine that the print would just kind of eat itself and collapse before the print was done. However, after watching the video, it looks like the pulp comes out as more of a cement looking structure. And it looks like it dries pretty quick, so that by the time another layer is added the previous layer is some what dry. The shapes that this pulp makes is so interesting in texture, it looks like it would be strangely soft. I wonder how fragile it is? This stuff is really cool, I am looking forward to seeing more paper pulp 3d printed objects, maybe even larger pieces? I wonder if the material could remain structural the larger the object got.
This is exciting. Pulped paper would be a both cheaper and more environmentally friendly printing material were it to replace plastic in most 3D printers. Although the printing resolution is very low and visibly so in the pictures, I would imagine that a little more development (especially if it were taken up by a major engineering and manufacturing company) could quickly miniaturize the device. Between this and the metal printers that are being developed, I would be surprised if a lot of small scale manufacturing process transitioned to 3D printing in the next few years. Plastic is a useful material, but many projects call for something stronger or more biodegradable.
I feel like it should also be noted that this is doubly environmentally friendly: it uses an environmentally friendly material, and it is an additive manufacturing process. Many people don't think about this, but printing uses only the amount of material needed, as opposed to most manufacturing techniques, which cut away (and often waste) unneeded material.
This is so amazing. I remember when my dad first told me about 3D printers, and I was confused when he explained to me most products were made with plastic. It made sense within the restraints of practicality, but I always found the objects uninteresting, wishing to see more personalization, having such an incredible tool be more than a few thousand dollar investment to save on phone cases. 3D printers, if developed more, could become an incredible addition to something we can consider a household item. These objects made of paper are not only more economic, but beautiful and individual. One can recycle items they love out of paper and make them into other things. I wonder what will be created when they are more affordable so the general public has more access to them. I am also curious to how far this kind of technology will affect all lines of work, will there ever be a day where an entire set is constructed via a printer, where the items we design come out exactly as we want them, because we input the code ourselves? I personally always await the day we have replicators, like in star trek. I wonder to whether, if we can all have access to machines that can create what we input into it, what will become of fashion? Will the purchase of items become the purchasing of codes and materials? I hope that with the further exploration of making different kinds of 3D Printers, there is a focus on the recyclability of the objects it creates.
I love the idea of a more sustainable 3D printing technique. We all know 3D printing is going to be quickly integrated into the everyday experience in a lot of ways. And right now, the primary 3D printing material is plastic. To be able to find a more eco-friendly alternative would be incredible. I know there are certain 3D printing techniques that utilize other materials like concrete. But this is the first I’m hearing about paper. I wonder how this material actually stacks up to plastic though. I mean, it’s clear that there’s less precision in the shape of the outcome, which would mean either needing to sculpt down the printed shape, or being ok with the end product. Something else to consider would be the durability of the printed object. I think this is a great first step, but there’s still a lot left to go before we find a reasonable replacement for plastic.
This new 3D printer technology is quite interesting. Being able to use a waste from many products in a way to make something new and also still retain the reusability of it. In a class, I am looking at essentially cutting all types of foam out of use in the theatre and what that would mean. This is one of those similar products that could be used as an alternative to carving foam into the shapes you could responsibly print or carve from blocks of similar material. One major concern that comes to my mind in looking at using something like this is that it can not have the same structural strength that printing with a material such as plastic or high strength fiber can and does have. So depending on what your needing the end product for it could play a major deciding role in if one would ever consider using this in their process. I think it would be great for models though!
I love this initiative, and the path it’s starting to create. As individuals are trying to become less plastic dependent, some industries are trying to catch up to the trend. This is a clear example on how the demands of the consumers affect the industries. This pulp printer has a long way to go in order to compete with a 3D printer that prints plastic. It lacks definition and cleanliness, although the article describes it well “the resulting objects do have a certain rough and ready, unfinished charm”. It could potentially work for some audiences who do not care as much about the aesthetic rather than the function. But for a clean work it's not recommended yet. However I truly appreciate the gate this idea opens, and I can't wait to see all the innovations that will come out in a similar fashion, as we attempt to move all industries towards a greener path.
While I think this sounds really interesting, I wonder if this is the most practical solution available. Most 3D printers on the market can use PLA which decomposes in 3-6 months. PLA is a corn based material and is generally considered to be an environmentally friendly plastic, especially since corn is a renewable resource. On top of that, 3D printers that print PLA are easily accessible, pretty common, and getting cheaper and cheaper. Though this puppled paper idea sounds fascinating, right now it sounds more impractical then PLA. Also, I would be concerned with the durability of the wood pulp. I think it's unlikely that it would be strong as other alternative. I hope that people keep experimenting with ways to make 3D printing more environmentally sustainable, but I think this idea is not there yet. Maybe in a few years it will be a feasible alternative, but right now it seems unlikely.
This was a really interesting article because of the general newness of 3D printers. With newer technologies, there is a drastic period of time for development and troubleshooting. I have never had any experience with a 3D printer but I have a general understanding on the technology and just assumed plastic was the only reliable option. I have seen more advanced printers in videos on a larger scale that have the ability to print houses from concrete and even pottery from clay. The fact that there is always being research and testing done to change the initial plastic to paper pulp is facinatung and it makes me wonder what is next for 3D printers. One of the biggest complaints in the 3D printing industry is the cost of material. Converting the plastic material to paper pulp would cut down the cost of material and possibly even make it available to make at home with recycled paper.
This new development in the world of 3d printing ties in very well with something David Boevers has been talking about regularly for a very long time: the recycling and reuse of wood products within our shop. A stated pipe dream of this facility is to be able to manufacture our own particle board; we'd have our own wood chipper or pulper, our own press and everything and we would have our own recycling plant right in the shop. Let's ignore the glaring problems with this idea, and consider the addition of a pulped paper 3d printer. If there is a pulped paper printer, it stands to reason that there is the possibility of making a pulped wood printer. After all, paper is just made of pulped wood, so really we'd just be skipping a step in the process, right? If we're able to get a large enough print bed, there's almost no limit to what we can create with such a machine. Obviously the big problems with this kind of technology would be the resolution of whatever this machine might print, and the cost of whatever binder we would have to use to stick everything together.
I have seen similar wood filaments and other alternatives to plastic before, but this is still a really cool option for 3D printing. I love when people take anew technology and use it to do something people don't really think it can do. For instance, I have also seen 3D printers using clay in order to make art instead of plastic to make functional prototypes. This article also shows how accessible 3D printing is getting to the average person, and when it becomes a staple in every hobbyist's garage, I think we will see some really cool things come out of places people do not expect. I think that this is a great way to be a little more environmentally conscious about the types of materials 3D printers are using. I do see this type of filament having applications that the plastic side of 3D printing could not achieve, so I am excited to see where this goes.
Ok while it seems like the wood pulp 3D printer isn’t going to win any awards it’s still kinda cool. Despite to god awful noises it makes while running it seems to be pretty efficient and simple. I am mostly curious on how easily the printer is able to push the wood pulp through the print head. The reason for this curiousness is due to the fact that while I’m not sure I that the printer is the big product here because in my opinion it’s the solution of wood pulp that they are extruding. Because while it seems that the print resolution is currently far less than stellar, with the proper funding and time I feel that improvements can be made to help address that lack of resolution. In short while it’s not exactly here yet in the sense that we can currently build with wood printing 3D printers, they are on the horizon.
I love this! This is such a great approach to finding ways to help the environment that are perhaps a little outside of the box. So much of 3D pronting is not about creating final products but about testing things both in design,function and feasibility. This approach uses methods that have already been around for years in the paper mache world and applies them here. I love that the final product is still usable for most purposes and then when no longer needed easily compostable. I don’t think that this can completely eliminate the use of plastic within the world of 3D printing, but in many cases may be a great alternative. Paper pulp is much stronger than people may think. I do think though that this may make the loading process of the material a little more difficult than snapping in a roll of plastic wire.
Paper extrusion has been talked about for many years, but this is the first I have seen a machine in action. I would have expected the device to be bigger given the resolution that it prints, but I suppose once they perfect the design it will become a lot easier to scale. I would assume that the actual extrusion material is where most of the secrets in the design lie. The machine itself is simple and uses standard CNC protocol to deliver the part. The extrusion method is not something that I am familiar although I think the principle behind the idea is good. After seeing the “cocking gun” delivery method, I ask myself why 3d printing hasn’t taken on other material types? I see significant potential for silicon-based print material, and with a plunger such as this, you would be able to achieve this extrusion although you would still need to figure out an accelerated cure method between each layer.
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