3D-Printed Wood Furniture Could Ship Flat, Then Dry Into Shape
27th August 2022
A new way of 3D printing wood that takes advantage of warping could change how we build things in the future — an innovation that could potentially save us all time and money.
The challenge: Wood is made of fibers that absorb moisture like a sponge. If lumber isn’t dried properly, the wood will eventually shrink — bending or twisting in different directions depending on the orientation of the fibers.
That’s called “warping,” and it’s usually something we try to avoid — a warped door won’t close properly, and a warped floor will look wavy rather than flat.
The idea: A team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) has now developed a new technique for 3D printing wood that turns warping into a tool rather than a nuisance.
By mixing superfine, filtered sawdust with binding agents, they created an ink that could be extruded from a 3D printer. By printing the ink at various speeds and along different pathways, they discovered that they could control the shape the wood warped into after drying.