Cellulose used to fabricate large 3D objects

The lack of scalability and high production cost are two of the issues that have stymied the use of cellulose as a 3D printing material, but a team from Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) believe they have overcome these problems with FLAM (fungal-like adhesive materials).

According to SUTD, their approach has been inspired by the wall of the fungus-like oomycetes, which is reproduced by introducing small amounts of chitin between cellulose fibres. The resulting FLAM are said to be strong, lightweight and inexpensive, and can be moulded or processed using woodworking techniques.

No organic solvents or synthetic plastics are used to manufacture the material, which is scalable and can be reproduced without specialised facilities. FLAM is also fully biodegradable in natural conditions and outside composting facilities.

It is further claimed that the cost of FLAM is in the range of commodity plastics and 10 times lower than the cost of common filaments for 3D printing, such as PLA (polylactic acid) and ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene). The researchers have furthermore developed an additive manufacturing technique specifically for the material.