Print Quality Optimisation of Upcycled Biomaterials for Ambient 3D printing

With growing concern over our reliance on non-renewable resources and the environmental impact of conventional manufacturing, the quest for sustainable materials and production processes has intensified. This pursuit has extended to the field of additive manufacturing, where bio-materials have emerged as promising alternatives, aiming to reduce...

Perceiving Grown Bacterial Cellulose: An Aesthetic and Sensorial Evaluation of a Bio-Fabricated Material

Biofabricated and grown materials are an emergent trend in the design discipline. The push towards the re-search of innovative and sustainable material solutions has recently increased since there is a real necessity to find solutions compatible with sustainable production paradigms. In the presented work, bacterial cellulose (BC) from kombucha...

Early-stage analysis of a novel insulation material based on MPCM-doped cementitious foam: Modelling of properties, identification of production process hotspots and exploration of performance trade-offs

This study presents an early-stage design exploration of NRG-Foam, an innovative insulation material composed of cementitious foam doped with microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs). The study comprises the static part that utilizes life cycle assessment and life cycle costing assessment for getting insight into the impacts of the...

Venously Printed: Multi-material 3D printed responsive fluidic interfaces with programmable dynamic appearance triggered by mechanical deformation.

Venously printed contributes to the field of HCI and digital manufacturing by exploring the scope and possibilities for programmable and responsive fluidic interfaces, using multi-material 3D printing as a manufacturing technique. Novel meta-materials and computational composites have proven to open up new design paradigms and continue to expand...

DIY-Materials approach to design meaningful materials for the sustainability transition

The critical environmental conditions of the planet compel humankind to rapidly devise solutions able to minimize the impact of human actions on Earth. Environmental issues are urgent, so researchers and practitioners in the design field are committed to formalising new visions and pathways, willing to meet the SDGs of the 2030 agenda. While...

Crafting Materials During COVID-19: The Locked-Down Material Lab

Lately, designers have become deeply interested in the materials generation process. With an approach of transforming unconventional elements into possible materials, they discover many possibilities with new characteristics ready to explore. This article discusses a study proposing concepts of materials generation, focusing on self-production...

Automated data-driven exploration of chemical space for catalysts

Catalysts play an essential role in the daily lives of humans. These catalysts are used in many industries to make processes more energetically favourable. Climate change is pushing humanity towards the usage of more green energy and catalysts play an important role in this transition.For example, in the hydrogenation...

Compatibility in microstructural topology optimization: A physical method for generating connectable microstructures

Microstructural materials with spatially-varying properties, such as trabecular bone tissue, are widely seen in nature. These functionally graded structures possess smoothly changing microscale topologies that enable performance far superior to that of their base material. While the optimization of periodic microstructures has been studied in...

Increasing the reliability of ceramics components using self-crack-healing

Structural ceramics are superior in high temperature strength and anticipated as leading materials for next generation energy machine. However, ceramics have disadvantage of brittleness, sensitive to flaw and low reliability. To overcome the disadvantages, the present authors proposed a new technology for the through life reliability guarantee...