New research is showing positive results when harnessing 3D printing technology to combine timber and plastic waste and create high-performance building elements.
Waste is a pressing global problem that depletes our primary resources and聽impacts on our environment. The construction industry is a prime offender,聽consuming 30-50% of primary materials and producing around 40% of landfill聽through construction and demolition. In Australia, 85% percent of logged聽timber and 88% of plastics are wasted and end up in landfill. This project shows聽that timber and plastic waste are a valuable resource and can be transformed聽into smart sustainable building elements, using advanced manufacturing聽technologies in the form of 3D printing.
3D printing can do things that current construction technologies cannot: The聽3D printing process allows architects to design at the nanoscale, fluidly varying聽the material composition and printing parameters to make building elements聽of variable strength, density, shape, texture and colour as demonstrated in the聽microtimber prototypes. Future research will develop this concept towards聽building houses that are affordable and sustainable and can be recycled.
Huang, Y., Loschke, S., Gan, Y., Proust, G. (2024). Interrelations between Printing Patterns and Residual Stress in Fused Deposition Modelling for the 4D Printing of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene and Wood鈥揚lastic Composites. Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing, 8(2).
Mai, J., De Oliveira Barata, E., Loschke, S., Proust, G. (2023). Fabricating Wood-Like Textures on Multi-curved 3D Printed Architectural Elements. 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, 10(1), 15-22.
Huang, Y., Loschke, S., Proust, G. (2021). In the mix: The effect of wood composition on the 3D printability and mechanical performance of wood-plastic composites. Composites Part C: Open Access, 5(100140, July 2021), 102373.聽
Girdis, J., Gaudion, L., Proust, G., Loschke, S., Dong, A. (2017). Rethinking Timber: Investigation into the Use of Waste Macadamia Nut Shells for Additive Manufacturing. JOM, 69(3), 575-579.
Associate Professor聽,聽聽University of Sydney
Professor ,聽University of Sydney
John Mai,聽University of Sydney
Yerong Huang,聽University of Sydney
,聽University of Sydney
聽Associate Professor聽,聽University of Sydney
Adjunct Professor Richard Hough,聽University of Sydney
Professor , University of Sydney
