voxeljet has successfully tested a method of reusing construction waste in 3D printing.
The company produces large-format 3D printers typically used to produce molds for metals or ceramics, and offers one of the largest devices on the market, the VX4000.
This project, however, was done on their much smaller VX200 devices that is designed for smaller experiments. That’s exactly what happened here, as voxeljet partnered with Parastruct. Parastruct is a molding company that produces a special material, Ecomould. voxeljet explains:
“The material tested was the Ecomould material set from Parastruct GmbH. A material set consisting of biogenic production residues from the construction industry and a mineral binder, which was developed by the Austrian start-up. Using binder jetting, Ecomould can be used to produce molded parts that are suitable for the cold casting of concrete and ceramics for interior design objects or for laminating processes.”
The idea here is to mix Ecomould with construction waste, specifically sawdust and wood flour. There are mountains of that stuff produced by the construction industry each year, and it typically goes to waste. Construction companies pay big money to dispose of this type of waste.
If burnt, it releases CO2 into the atmosphere. If buried, it eventually rots and generates methane, an even worse greenhouse gas. Here they have identified an approach to capture the material in solid form for use — and reuse.
I should point out that Ecomould is designed as an eco friendly material, as it has a much lower CO2 footprint than typical resins used in 3D printing.
The use of voxeljet equipment is not surprising; they are designed for use with open materials and it’s straightforward to adjust settings to accommodate new materials, such as Ecomould.
At this point, it seems that voxeljet has effectively introduced a new material type — Ecomould + wood waste — that can almost certainly be printed on any of their very large devices.
This opens up the possibility of new applications. I could imagine a service that accepts sawdust and wood flour from construction companies and then prints large components. It would also be possible for a large construction company to set up a central depot for waste drop off, which would then print more construction components.
Finally, the prints made with this material can themselves be chopped up and used as particulate matter in subsequent prints, making the process extremely eco friendly.
Via voxeljet and Parastruct
