Compared with the traditional subtractive wood process, the additive 3D printing process makes it easier to manufacture certain products without waste. All these products are made of Forust materials and do not involve any wood turning.

A new product and new process are changing people's perceptions of 3D printing and expanding the design possibilities of using wood to make objects without waste. This new product called Forust was developed by a 3D printing technology company called Desktop Metal in Boston. It uses sawdust and adhesives in a computer-driven process to create wood parts without waste in design configurations that are difficult or even impossible to achieve with traditional subtractive woodworking procedures. One of the co-inventors of the process recently discussed with us in detail the products, processes and possibilities of this new technology. Ronald Rael is a professor of architecture in the School of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley. He said that the driving force behind Forust's development is related to the creation of a more sustainable wood manufacturing model, but it can also solve a series of wood manufacturing challenges, from historical restoration to the creation of luxurious wood products, to new products that have not yet been dreamed of.

About the process Rael said that the process used to create Forust is very different from the common concept of 3D printing. "Perhaps many of your audience have heard of 3D printing and thought of plastic sprayed through a small nozzle. Sometimes this plastic is used to introduce different kinds of materials, such as metal or wood, but our process is very, very different," Lei Er said. "We use re-used and recycled sawdust, so we spray the sawdust powder with a biodegradable and non-toxic binder to bind it together, so we are reorganizing the sawdust to make larger wood products." Rael Said that the process used is not actually a new technology, but its application to the manufacture of wood products is a new application that can expand the potential of the old 3D printing process. "This technology is a very interesting technology, it is one of the oldest forms of 3D printing." Rael said. "It's been over 30 years. It just doesn't use many different kinds of material technologies. One of our innovations is that we can introduce a new type of material to the system."

What can it do? Rael described the use of this technology to create "almost anything" pictures, but it does have specific application and design possibilities. "It really depends on the designer's imagination, but we can imagine interior architectural products, any type of walls, surfaces, almost anything you can imagine, luxurious interiors, consumer goods, furniture," he said. "We started with sawdust particles. We can imagine that if you grow that particle, these sawdust particles and glue them together to form any shape, you can really make anything you can imagine." One application includes Copy historical molds without having to create mold knife profiles or process more than the exact amount of material you need. "For example, in a historic renovation, you may have a specific mold, and it may rot. So, there may be a very small part or something. Therefore, you have to copy it through all these custom tools, This can be very expensive," Rael explained. "But today, you can actually use mobile phones, iPhones, and smartphones for 3D scanning. You will have an instant CAD file that you can deliver to us and print it at any time."

New texture This process creates its own texture in the printed wood part. A statement on the Forust website described the result as "3D printed, digitally rematerialized wood with textures throughout the part that can be polished and repaired." Rael described the process in more detail. "Because additive manufacturing is layered layer by layer, just like trees gradually accumulate as they grow, so the material has a certain directionality," he said. "In some cases, these layers can imitate or look like wood grain, as if the product actually grows like a tree. But we can also do some very special things layer by layer, for example, we can introduce different The color.” 3D printing technology can even be used not only to print wood particles, but also to print images on wood or even wood. "If you want to imitate any kind of wood grain, you can actually do it in a wooden structure," Rael said. He said that this also provides opportunities for finishing and pre-finishing. As part of the process, hyperlocalized colors and even images can be applied to wood products. Rael uses its fine-grained paint brush to apply stains not only on the outside of the wood product, but also on the inside, through the texture layer or the texture layer itself. "So far, we have been imitating different kinds of wood grain, but it can actually be anything or any image," Rael said. "This opens up new possibilities for applying finishing to the appearance of wood products, and this has yet to be discovered."

Comparison with natural wood Just as woodworkers choose specific types of wood to make their specific characteristics most suitable for specific applications, people naturally want to know how Forust compares with natural wood in terms of strength and other characteristics. "(Forust) is an isotropic material, and in some cases, its strength is similar to wood, or even greater than wood," Rael said. "We can make it very powerful. It has structural capabilities." He said that they are limited by the ability of existing machines to print Forust parts. For example, don't consider Forust as the first choice for large structural beams at this time. "The beauty of it is that if assembled, most wood products are made from smaller wooden parts, so we can make many parts to produce larger structural parts," he said. "I don’t want to say exactly that it is like laminated wood, but to some extent it is laminated on a micro level. We can also laminate parts, but these parts don’t have to be as flat as laminated wood products. They can be Many different shapes, they can be joined together, connected and glued." One advantage of Forust compared to natural wood is greater dimensional stability, which can even be achieved by the coating applied during the printing process and after the part is printed. Enhance this stability. "The interesting thing is that it is injected into the layer, so it is not just an outer surface coating, it is actually injected into several layers," he said. "Instead of spraying or lacquering like on a piece of furniture or a table, it's more deeply embedded in wood particles."

Additives and Subtractives Understanding the potential of this new technology has a lot to do with understanding the difference between additive manufacturing and subtractive manufacturing. In traditional carpentry, this process is fundamentally subtractive, staring at the trees, removing materials to make logs, removing more material to make wood, and continuing the subtraction process, removing more materials to label parts, creating joinery, and The cosmetic and mechanical use of modeling parts. In contrast, additive processes start from scratch and add materials to get the final result. "Because we grow it additively, we can create shapes and forms that other forms of tools cannot achieve," Rael said. "This opens the door to new possibilities, even products that have not yet been imagined." But it also requires different thinking. Woodworkers will have to put aside their subtractive thinking and think about addition to get all the benefits of the additive process. "I think in a sense, people must first give up the meaning of subtracting from the wood, and just let themselves imagine what might happen," Rael explained. "For example, if you want to make a very large sphere or cavity in a piece of wood with a very small hole in it, I can't imagine a tool that can do this easily, or not at all. But this It is absolutely possible for additive manufacturing.” Rael believes that woodworkers’ understanding of the manufacturing process depends on tools. “I think woodworkers or craftsmen start to think in terms of tools. They might consider the role of chisels, band saws, or CNC milling machines,” he explained. "Craftsmen are starting to think about these tools. I think one thing we have to admit is that this is a very new tool, and it is just that. This tool allows us to produce new types of objects." Making parts from scrap is obviously sustainable. The driving force for Forust's development. Even the name of the product derives from this goal. "We decided to work with Forust because we believe that maybe we can protect the forests for us, the planet and the future," he said. Rael emphasized that Forust has solved a major challenge in the woodworking industry, which is dealing with large amounts of waste. "If you want to make a hole in the wood, you will remove all the wood, and you will leave a pile of wood chips, sawdust, shavings. We start from there," he explained. "So, when we make something, we don't leave a pile of wood chips. We only have products left. The remaining waste can be recycled back to our system. We can continue to make objects in this way." Efficiency Rael believes in general The additive process, especially Forust products, can increase the efficiency of woodworking. At first, woodworkers may be attracted to a product that does not need to be wasted, which is an efficiency in itself, but Rael said that the concept of efficiency should be broader. “The efficiency of the product may be that it can be lighter, or it can be a shell, or it can be a three-dimensional object with sound-absorbing function that is difficult to make. I think the possibilities are endless,” he said. "A heavy piece of wood may be a piece of light wood. Its perforation method can not only simply drill holes, but also use more three-dimensional complex methods. Therefore, I think the types of products that can be produced have yet to be discovered." Models Although many carpenters asked about buying machines to 3D print Forust products, the company initially started its work from service bureau models. This means that the wood manufacturer will send scans or digital files to Desktop Metal to print them in the Forust material. The company hopes to provide a software tool set so that customers can implement the parts they need through additive design. Rael emphasized that woodworkers need to use all additive processes as new tools in their workshops. "If we think about the moment when we create a specific woodworking tool, such as a CNC milling machine or chisel or anything else, it expands the manufacturing possibilities," he said. "We just want to expand the possibilities of production. We can consider traditional wood crafts, such as wood restoration, which may play a role, but we can consider the future of wood products. Those that have not yet been discovered will be the most exciting discoveries." 

You can listen to Ronald Rael's full interview below.

Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

William Sampson is a lifelong woodworker who has been a small-scale entrepreneur and advocate of lean manufacturing since the 1980s. He served as the editor of Fine Woodworking magazine in the early 1990s and founded WoodshopBusiness magazine, which he eventually sold and merged with CabinetMaker magazine. He helped establish the Cabinet Manufacturers Association in 1998 and became its first executive director. Today, as the editor of FDMC magazine, he has more than 20 years of professional woodworking industry experience. His popular "In the Shop" tool reviews and videos appear monthly in FDMC.

Sign up for Woodworking Network Newsletter

Get the latest headline news subscription sent to you every day