Self-assembling tables and chairs made of 3D-printed wood can put an end to the nightmare of painstakingly trying to assemble furniture. Scientists in Israel have created a printable ‘wood ink’ that can be programmed to form complex shapes as it dries, such as domes, spirals and even Pringles shapes. While experts have created printed designs only a few inches long so far, they are aiming to produce much larger objects such as chairs, tables and shelves.
In the future, large wooden products will still be shipped disassembled to a destination, but will not need to be assembled by the customer later to take their final shape. This technology could one day put an end to flat-pack furniture assembly instructions that require physical exertion and are a nightmare for many.
“At the destination, the object can become whatever structure you want,” said Doron Kam, a graduate student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
It is already known that plants can change their shape or texture after being cut and change shape as they dry. For example, when a tree is felled, it shrinks and bends unevenly due to differences in the orientation of the wood’s fibers.
“Bending can be a barrier, but we thought we could try to understand this phenomenon and turn it into a desirable deformation,” says Kam.
In 2019, the team unveiled its eco-friendly water-based ink, which consists of microparticles of wood waste known as ‘wood flour’ mixed with cellulose nanocrystals and xyloglucan (natural binders from plants). The researchers printed objects produced with wood ink using a 3D printer that uses software to create a specific design before being printed by robotic equipment.
Now the team has shown that the way or “path” of the ink determines its strain behavior as moisture evaporates. For example, a flat disc printed in the form of a series of concentric circles dries up forming a saddle-like structure reminiscent of Pringles chips, known to mathematicians as a ‘hyperbolic paraboloid’. and shrinks.
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