There’s a lot of people around the world trying to 3D print all types of materials, but this venture is a little different. What it prints is alive.
The Print Green project has developed a kind of 3D printer that prints a soil and seed mixture. If you gently water the print, you’ll see the seeds germinate in the pattern printed. The patterns are relatively coarse in resolution and not particularly deep, but it is indeed a 3D print.
And it grows.
Typically grass seed is used as material, as we were told it “was the easiest to use”. The soil mixture is printed on a cloth-covered sponge that can then be placed outside in the sunlight for germination and growth.
What’s even more interesting about the Print Green project is that is has been done by four students from Maribor, Slovenia: Tina Zidanšek, Danica Rženičnik, Urška Skaza and Maja Petek. They do not yet even have a company, but based on the response we observed at the NYC 3D printshow, we suspect they’ll be organizing in the future. http://3dprintshow.com/
Via Print Green