This tool was designed by Olaf Diegel, University of Auckland professor of additive manufacturing, and manufactured using Forust’s unusual 3D printing technology, using wood waste and lignin-based bio-resins.
Olaf loves to design all sorts of unusual musical instruments, and being an expert in the field of additive technologies, he actively uses 3D printing and even got himself a company ODD Guitars.
For example, back in 2016, he showcased a guitar with a 3D printed aluminum body made with selective laser sintering of metal powders, and the instrument was not heavy at all – just over three and a half kilograms.
Forust is a subsidiary of the Massachusetts developer and manufacturer of Desktop Metal 3D printers, which has been actively buying up industry enterprises for the last year to enrich its technology portfolio.
The old companies ExOne and EnvisionTEC are already operating under the Desktop Metal umbrella. The latter, although known primarily for professional stereolithographic 3D printers, in 2017 developed its version of Binder Jetting technology using a robotic arm, and now EnvisionTEC’s developments have grown into another project called Forust. The parade is led by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, the founders of the Emerging Objects studio.
Peculiarities
The peculiarity of the new project is that Forust offers services for 3D printing with waste from sawmills, that is, the most real sawdust. The sawdust is laid in a layer, compacted, and then the system applies a pattern using a head that sprays a binder – a kind of epoxy resin based on lignin, one of the main polymers in wood.
As a result, wood products are natural, if not in structure, then in composition. The technology not only makes it possible to dispose of waste and at least somehow reduce deforestation, but also to obtain products of high geometric complexity.
The guitar is designed by SolidWorks and nTopology. The intricate pattern is referred to as a “trellis structure with a triple periodic minimum surface.” The instrument features a Warmoth neck with Gotoh tuners, twin pickups from Seymour Duncan, and a tailpiece from Schaller.
Picture Credit: Pexels