Aug 21, 2015 | By Simon
With coffee drinkers around the world consuming over 2.25 billion cups of coffee per day, it comes with little surprise that coffee beans are the world’s second most valuable traded commodity behind petroleum.
But just like any other product that’s consumed in abundance, there is also a steady supply of waste byproduct, too.
Today, 3D printer filament manufacturer 3Dom USA - in partnership with Fargo, North Dakota based bio-composite company, c2renew - has released a new bio-material made from coffee waste that they’re calling Wound Up.
Using coffee leftovers to create the material, the resulting filament - and printed objects - consist of a rich brown color with a noticeable natural grain. According to the company, “a cup printed with Wound Up is a true ‘coffee cup’”.
The filament is the first in a line of other composite materials that are currently being developed by 3Dom USA under their c2renew Composites collection of filaments that focus on bio-based products and are scheduled to be released in the near future.
“c2renew uses proprietary bio-composite formulations to design materials, compounds and parts that satisfy demanding engineering specifications,” explains the company.
“With our technologies, you can take advantage of low-cost, renewable resources while meeting, maintaining, or even improving upon the mechanical properties you require. Our bio-composite material compounds are made from agricultural residuals along with recycled or virgin plastics from petroleum or renewable resources.”
The new filaments - including Wound Up - can be printed on any machine capable of printing with PLA and comes perfectly spooled on the company’s 100% bio-based Eco-Spool. During testing, the company successfully printed the material on a number of different 3D printers including those from MakerBot, LulzBot, FlashForge, and more.
The announcement of the new coffee-based filament comes on the heels of the company’s release of their new engineering-grade Glass Filled PLA 3D printer filament - a first of its kind.
Designed as a composite PLA/glass material, the Glass Filled PLA filament can also be used on any 3D printer that is capable of already printing with PLA filaments, similar to the c2renew line.
Between the variety of sustainable materials that 3Dom USA has been experimenting with for creating filaments, it’s clear that they’re dead-set on shifting users from printing with ‘harmful’ plastics to more environmentally-friendly materials without sacrificing print quality - and it looks like they’re succeeding.
Find out more about the $49 Wound Up and the company’s other materials by heading over to 3Dom USA.
Posted in 3D Printing Materials
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