Fully Recyclable Multi-Material Printing

Abstract

Recycling is often a costly and inefficient process, particularly for objects composed of multiple integrated materials. Here, we demonstrate a freeform fabrication system that prints with fully reusable physical voxels and minimal recycling effort. This new paradigm of digital (discrete) matter enables any number of materials to be printed together in any configuration. The individual voxels may then be reclaimed at will by dissolving the bonds holding the structure together. Coupled with a compatible voxel sorting process, we demonstrate multiple generations of freeform fabricated objects using the same physical material. This opens the door to a flexible desktop fabrication process in which 3D multi-material objects are fully recyclable and re-usable with minimal infrastructure.