We’ve seen all sorts of 3D-printers on these pages before. From the small to the large, Cartesians and deltas, and printers that can squeeze out plastic, metal, and even concrete. But this appears to be the first time we’ve ever featured a paper-pulp extruding 3D-printer.
It’s fair to ask why the world would need such a thing, and its creator, [Beer Holthuis], has an obvious answer: the world has a lot of waste paper. Like 80 kg per person per year. Thankfully at least some of that is recycled, but that still leaves a lot of raw material that [Beer] wanted to put to work. Build details on the printer are sparse, but from the photos and the video below it seems clear how it all went together. A simple X-Y-Z gantry moves a nozzle over the build platform. The nozzle, an order of magnitude or two larger than the nozzles most of us are used to, is connected to an extruder by a plastic hose. The extruder appears to be tube with a stepper-driven screw that lowers a ram down onto the pulp, squeezing it into the hose. [Beer] notes that the pulp is mixed with a bit of “natural binder” to allow the extruded pulp to keep its shape. We found the extrusion process to be just a wee bit repulsive to watch, but fascinating nonetheless, and the items he’s creating are certainly striking in appearance.
This may be the first pulp printer to grace our pages, but it’s not the first pulp hack we’ve featured. Pulp turns out to be a great material to keep your neighbors happy and even makes a dandy fuel.
Thanks to [baldpower] for the tip.
Very cool. Repulsive, yes, but cool.
The whole structure is moving. Not good for precision.
I can see from your comment that you’re new to 3D printing… welcome! You might want to check out Prusa and its variants as an example of phenomenal precision and capability. The video shows a frame that looks like the Anet A8, but made from plywood – a very capable printer once you get the settings dialed in.
I think you missed the joke. Speak about precision when your “nozzle” diameter is 5mm.
yes not to mention that the extruded material has a very odd consistency and doesn’t harden
ding dong? anyone home?
might be an interesting way to create some elaborate packing material, for when you need to pack and ship some strange shaped part, and want it to look nice in the box.
Ah, yes, good idea – it makes me wonder if this printing technology could be combined with the mycelium biodegradable packaging? https://ecovativedesign.com/ – could be a winner.
If he is using paper pulp, and his aglutinating agent is for example corn starch, the resulting material will already be biodegradable. If the “printing” patter could also include some structured holes, it could also be easily burnable.
Great motivational video while taking a dump.
That is another type of “extrusion” :P
It’s people! That thing is extruding PEOPLE!
Has a camera ever been incorporated in a 3d printer near the extrusion point as a feed back to extrusion rate? Something akin to an algorithm by which: breaks in the newly laid bead are detected, increase flow until no breaks
I think it could be the best printer to print trees :)
Bunkers for waps !!! Finally some buildings that would last more than one season :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaX9Hdeg4FU
Won’t last long, paper will still burn.
Add a splash of PVA glue, and the stuff will be rock solid once it dries.
Injecting a quick drying glue in the nozzle could increase stability during the build, too.
Wouldn’t mix very well though, with the water and all.
Sorel cement would be better option imho.
Could I print wasp nests with this printer?
The interesting part – the extruder – is not in the video :(
Yeah, it’s meant as an art piece, like “Look what I’ve done, but not how I done it”. Compare it to “hacker way” where “way” is sometimes even more important than result.
Cool, repulsive and useless all the same time. It does indeed seem fast enough to print packaging and some art, but not precise enough for anything else.
Furniture? Storage? Very large parts? Custom jigs?
Interesting concept!
Thanks for posting
It lacks the one necessary aspect of 3D printing in order for it to produce viable structures rather than conical ones which “fall in” on themselves for rigidity: the previous layer has to firm-up before the next layer is laid down on it. Without that you just have a pile of squishy stuff being moved around by the extruder.
It is possible to print useful things without overhang. Therefore it is not necessary, just useful.
Impressive. Just because you cant think of any useful thinks to print doesn’t mean other people won’t. Paper is a good thermal insulator. In industrial scale you can print matresses or tents for the homeless. Packaging for weird-shaped products thy can save a lot of money in storage fees. Possibilities are endless.
Very nice thought. I think I would just go for shoving the shredded paper into a mattress shaped bag rather than a 3d printing process though.
Add some sort of binder. It needs to be biodegradable but biodegradable but not TOO biodegradable.
Then print really fancy peat pots in all sorts of sizes and shapes! They serve as temporary home decorations during the late winter/early spring while giving your summertime garden a nice head start.
Freeze the print into pykrete?
I wonder what happens when you drive off the water.
Another thought I have is turning a print into carbon (like making charcole or AvE’s ‘carbon foam’ foundry).
What if we add seeds to the mixture and make green throwies in aerodynamic shapes.