Agar agar

The Agar Agar 3D Printing Gun

The Agar Agar 3D Printing Gun projects goal is to reuse material from the designers household or from a second-hand store. Designer Ploy Thongchamnan got her inspiration from the open-source 3D printing culture and developed her own 3D printing device.

The 3D printing gun she has developed is based on a hot glue gun. The hot glue gun has been hacked iso that biofilaments can run through the heating element over synthetic glues. This is how the ‘Agar Agar 3D printing gun’ is made. The device gives the user a free-form possibility to create a bioplastic object from the material agar agar.

Making process

How to make bio filaments:

The ingredients for the filament are in a ratio of 1/1/3 agar agar, glycerine, and water. The agar agar is a cooking powder and found in supermarkets. To strengthen the mixture, add cornstarch with less than 1 proportion of agar. In addition, she also adds food colouring to the mixture. The mixture is cooked in a non-stick pan on a medium-high fire. After the warm mixture starts to solidify, she pours the medium into a long flexible vinyl tube. When the biomaterial is cooled down, she puts high air pressure in the tube to push the bioplastic out of the former. The filaments need to be stored in a fridge until it can be used for 3D printing.

After printing out the preferable shape, the bioplastic will dry in several days. The material will shrink around 60% and will become hard.

Text submitted by the maker and edited by the Future Materials Bank. For information about reproducing (a part of) this text, please contact the maker.