Fruit Printing
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2021 - ongoing

Series of biobased pasted and 3D extruder

Fruit + organic materials

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This design research focuses on developing pastes from wasted fruit to enable 3D printing of functional objects that range from vases to sturdy furniture. Every year, an astounding 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted worldwide, with approximately 45% of all fruit produced for consumption being discarded. In response to this pressing issue, my project aims to transform fruit waste into valuable resources. By creating pastes from natural ingredients, with 80% derived from fruit waste, these innovative recipes offer a sustainable solution while reducing food waste. Furthermore, in collaboration with 3D printing company VEDA, an extruder specifically designed for printing with these bio-based materials has been developed, addressing the lack of existing printers and extruders capable of handling this unique material. Due to the viscosity of the material the existing extruders are not suitable and I needed to develop a new principle to extrude this type of material on this scale.

This research pioneers a novel application of bio-based materials in additive manufacturing, revolutionizing the approach to sustainable design and resource utilization.