We've already seen 3D printers be used to create furniture, but the latest project from Seongil Choi and Fabio Hendry of the deisgn group Studio Ilio takes a decidedly different tack. They've found a way to take the waste material from a 3D printer -- a selective laser sintering printer, specifically -- and turn that into furniture and other objects.
The key to the process, as Dezeen explains, is a thin nichrome wire that's bent to form the shape of the object. It's then placed in a box that is filled with silica sand and the SLS printer waste, which otherwise would have had to simply be discarded. By sending an electrical current through the wire, the mixture surrounding the wire is heated and fused together, and the thickness is controlled just by leaving the electricity on for longer.
From the sound of things, the group doesn't have any plans to sell their creations, but they apparently haven't had any trouble getting the raw materials for them. They say were able to able to get a ton of the 3D printer waste for free and that there's plenty more readily available.
BBC News has more in a video interview with the duo.
