Desktop Metal adapts binder-jetting technology to print wood objects

Swiss industrial designer Yves Béhar is the first to design an exclusive collection of home goods using the Forust process. Images: Business Wire

3D printer builder Desktop Metal has launched Forust, a new process for printing functional end-use wood parts. The process, based on the company’s patented single-pass binder-jetting additive manufacturing technology, uses waste byproducts from wood manufacturing (cellulose dust) and the paper industry (lignin).

Unlike particle board or laminate products, Forust produces a wooden part with a digital grain that flows throughout the entire part. It can be sanded or finished another way, reports Desktop Metal. The system’s software has the ability to digitally reproduce nearly any wood grain, including rosewood, ash, zebrine, ebony, and mahogany.

According to Ric Fulop, founder and CEO of Desktop Metal, today there are many applications where polymers and plastics could be cost-effectively replaced with sustainably manufactured wood parts, including luxurious, high-end interior components, consumer electronics, instruments, and boats.

“For the first time, we can produce beautiful parts with the same durability and characteristics you would have in traditionally manufactured wood but printed using upcycled materials, which do not require cutting down or harvesting trees,” said Folup. “For each tree saved, we are reducing the carbon footprint by a metric ton over its lifetime.”

This report was excerpted from a Business Wire press release.

Software allows the Forust process to reproduce virtually any wood grain.