Gourds as Nature’s 3D Printer! #3DPrinting

Is this the disposable cup of the future

Awesome solution for disposable cups via Fast Company:

But what if your coffee came in an entirely organic kind of cup? That’s the vision of Jun Aizaki, the founder of New York-based design studio Crème Design. He and his team have created a prototype cup that’s made from a gourd grown inside a 3D-printed mold. And while the process to create the gourd cups, which he calls HyO-Cups, is time-intensive–taking a whopping five to six months–Aizaki hopes to one day mass-grow drinking receptacles, maybe even for coffee shops like Starbucks.

The finished cups are luminous, unique objects that are 100% organic and biodegradable. But it’s a long, tedious process to grow cups rather than manufacture them. Aizaki says it takes about a month for the plant to fruit, two to three weeks for the fruit to develop, and then once it’s finally grown large enough, it takes another two to three months of sitting in the sun for the gourd to dry enough that it can be used to drink out of. On top of that, gourds only grow during the summer in the New York area, dramatically limiting the team’s ability to prototype quickly. Because they’re so time-intensive to produce, they fall far short of the vision of one day replacing single-use cups in coffee shops and cafes. Still, Aizaki is determined to find a way of making the production process more efficient–and thus more scalable.

Check out the video below from Mashable:

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — New Products 11/15/2024 Featuring Adafruit bq25185 USB / DC / Solar Charger with 3.3V Buck Board! (Video)

Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: A New Arduino MicroPython Package Manager, How-Tos and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

Adafruit IoT Monthly — The 2024 Recap Issue!

Maker Business – Adafruit Daily — Apple to build another chip at TSMC Arizona

Electronics – Adafruit Daily — SMT Tip – Stop moving around!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !


No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.