In a world-first, wooden items get 3D-printed out of wood-only ingredients
Scientists have developed a new “ink” that allows objects to be 3D-printed out of wood. The material could reduce the amount of wood that gets wasted in the manufacturing of various products, plus it could utilize existing wood waste that would otherwise end up being burned or dumped.
Among other things, we’ve previously seen wooden-ish objects printed out cellulose derived from wood, along with a 3D-printed guitar made of sawdust mixed with a bio-epoxy resin. Scientists at MIT are even developing a method of growing lab-cultivated wood into predetermined three-dimensional shapes.
Researchers at Houston’s Rice University, however, are claiming that they are the first people to 3D-print truly wooden objects out of a material made up solely of wood’s natural components.