Laura Griffiths speaks to Galy Levy, Head of R&D at Balena, a fabric science firm, growing high-performance biopolymers, about constructing a round style economic system with 3D printing and sustainable supplies, and partnering with modular 3D clothier Brigitte Kock of Variable Seams.
TCT: Balena labored with Variable Seams to co-create a set of versatile, ready-to-wear 3D printed clothes. What was your shared imaginative and prescient?
GL: Our collaboration with Variable Seams was pushed by a shared ambition to redefine the boundaries of style via 3D printing, biobased supplies, and sustainability. Collectively, we aimed to exhibit how 3D printing can create versatile, ready-to-wear clothes which can be each versatile, sturdy, wearable, and totally round. By leveraging Balena’s BioCir Flex3D materials, we mixed technical excellence with a sustainable lifecycle, showcasing how cutting-edge supplies and computational design can revolutionise the best way style is produced and consumed. On the coronary heart of our imaginative and prescient is a dedication to creating a greater, extra sustainable future for style.
TCT: The gathering is made utilizing Balena’s compostable BioCirflex3D materials. Are you able to inform us in regards to the make-up of this materials and its distinctive attributes?
GL: BioCir Flex3D is a game-changer for sustainable design. It’s a biobased, compostable materials with a rubber-like texture that gives energy, flexibility, and agility. What makes it so particular is that it’s derived from sustainable sources like castor beans and polysaccharides, making certain it’s each useful and environmentally accountable. At Balena, we’ve developed a singular formulation that blends biodegradable polymers, naturally occurring bio-based parts, and different biodegradable modifiers. This mix doesn’t simply make our supplies round; it additionally ensures distinctive sturdiness and performance. What’s thrilling about BioCir Flex3D is how versatile it’s. It’s designed to twist, flex, and face up to influence, which means it not solely lasts longer but additionally opens up new inventive potentialities for designers. Its print-ready properties permit for exact, on-demand manufacturing, making it the proper selection for creating future-forward designs.
TCT: Are you able to elaborate on what this proposed round journey seems to be like?
GL: At Balena, we’re constructing a very round system that offers manufacturers full management over the lifecycle of their merchandise. This implies offering multi-end-of-life options, the place supplies can both be recycled or biodegrade on demand. By way of our end-of-life community, we join manufacturers to a streamlined course of for recycling, composting, and biodegradation, making it simpler than ever to transition from creation to disposal whereas totally closing the loop. Our BioCir supplies are designed to contribute to this imaginative and prescient of a round economic system. For instance, BioCir Flex3D is licensed industrially compostable, assembly world requirements like ASTM D6400-04 and EN 13432. This ensures that the fabric biodegrades quick and safely in managed composting services. On the identical time, it’s totally recyclable, which means it may be reprocessed and reintegrated into new manufacturing cycles, serving to to scale back the necessity for virgin materials and reaching zero post-industrial waste. Particularly in 3D printing, the place there’s lots of trial and error, we’ve proven how these round ideas work in observe. Throughout the growth course of, the fabric was not solely examined but additionally recycled and reprinted, proving its sturdiness and flexibility. This mission showcases how a totally round journey could be achieved, even in complicated processes like additive manufacturing.
TCT: How attainable is that this way forward for round style economies?
GL: A totally round textile style business is totally attainable, however it requires collective effort throughout all the worth chain. At Balena, we’re enabling this future by growing modern supplies like our BioCir vary, that are designed for recyclability and compostability. What’s distinctive is that these supplies combine seamlessly into current manufacturing processes, permitting manufacturers to transition to round practices with out the necessity for an entire overhaul.
That mentioned, reaching this imaginative and prescient goes past supplies—it requires collaboration between materials innovators, designers, and producers, together with stronger rules and rising client demand for sustainable options. Infrastructure for assortment and recycling remains to be a problem, however developments in expertise and partnerships like ours are proving {that a} round economic system isn’t simply an thought—it’s scalable and inside attain. Progress might take time, however with the correct programs and dedication, the style business can totally embrace circularity.
TCT: Traditionally, 3D printed style has taken the type of wearable ideas or equipment slightly than totally wearable clothes. What does this mission present us in regards to the potential way forward for sustainable style?
GL: This mission represents a groundbreaking step in 3D printed style, transferring past equipment and ideas to create totally wearable clothes that mix performance, consolation, and sustainability. Traditionally, supplies utilized in 3D printing have been too inflexible or brittle for sensible put on, however with the event of BioCir Flex3D, we’ve launched a fabric that provides the pliability and sturdiness required for ready-to-wear purposes. From a technical standpoint, this mission is a milestone in integrating additive manufacturing with sustainable materials science. It showcases the potential for exact, on-demand manufacturing, waste discount, and circularity via compostable and recyclable supplies. That is just the start of what’s doable when cutting-edge supplies and expertise converge to reshape the business.
TCT: What are your ideas on supplies as an enabling drive for 3D printing innovation?
GL: Supplies are undeniably the driving drive behind the evolution of 3D printing, transitioning the expertise from prototyping to creating useful, real-world purposes. The mechanical properties, flexibility, and sustainability of supplies dictate the scope of what could be achieved, particularly in industries like style, the place sturdiness and wearability are essential. At Balena, we’ve skilled this firsthand with BioCir Flex3D. Its distinctive mixture of flexibility, influence absorption, and round properties not solely facilitates modern design but additionally allows scalable, sustainable manufacturing. This materials’s biobased composition ensures compatibility with round economic system ideas, whereas its print-ready properties streamline manufacturing for each precision and effectivity. As materials science advances, we count on to see enhancements in energy, elasticity, and processability that can push 3D printing into new territories. These developments will unlock purposes starting from totally wearable clothes to industrial-scale manufacturing, making certain that 3D printing turns into a key expertise for sustainable innovation. The way forward for 3D printing depends on supplies that may seamlessly combine efficiency, versatility, and environmental duty, and their ongoing evolution will redefine what’s achievable throughout industries
TCT: You’re additionally utilizing desktop FDM machines, which I feel typically we are able to underestimate the facility of! Why did you select these applied sciences?
GL: We selected desktop FDM machines as a result of they strike a really perfect stability of accessibility, precision, and scalability, completely aligning with the objectives of this mission. FDM expertise permits us to totally optimise the distinctive properties of BioCir Flex3D—flexibility, sturdiness, and printability— whereas providing price effectivity and flexibility. These machines are broadly out there, usually present in households, making them accessible for designers and types to experiment with sustainable 3D printing with out requiring specialised gear.
FDM machines additionally excel in speedy prototyping, enabling exact changes to materials efficiency, wearability, and settings like infill patterns and layer adhesion. Whereas we’ve targeted on FDM for its accessibility, BioCir Flex3D is flexible sufficient to work throughout varied 3D printing applied sciences, together with industrial-scale programs. This ensures compatibility with each customary and superior workflows, demonstrating that round supplies like BioCir Flex3D can ship scalable, sustainable options for various industries.
TCT: Balena has labored on quite a few tasks throughout the style sector. Are you able to share extra on these tasks or plans for future ones?
GL: Completely. Considered one of our latest collaborations was with Bruno Tognin, a trailblazer in 3D-printed style. Collectively, we explored the transformative potential of BioCir Flex3D, by designing a groundbreaking 3D printed prime that demonstrates how sustainable supplies could be crafted for immediately’s wants and recycled into tomorrow’s creations. This mission is just the start. Utilizing his modern recycling equipment, Bruno will take the identical prime and reimagine it into a completely new design later in 2025, showcasing how BioCir Flex3D empowers designers to create, recycle, and push the boundaries of sustainable style. We’re so enthusiastic about what’s subsequent— this is only one instance of the thrilling collaborations now we have within the pipeline. Balena is dedicated to driving innovation within the 3D printing and style industries, and there’s rather more to return.
This text initially appeared inside TCT Europe Version Vol. 33 Challenge 1 and TCT North American Version Vol. 11 Challenge 1. Subscribe right here to obtain your FREE print copy of TCT Journal, delivered to your door six instances a 12 months.
