Printing, or additive manufacturing, is no longer a niche application in many companies but has become an integral part of industrial production and development processes — much like injection moulding or CNC-based metalworking. Complex metal components or the prototyping of plastic parts in the automotive industry often come to mind. Few, however, would associate 3D printing with wood as a material. The Chemnitz-based start-up ligenium aims to change that together with research partners.
As requirements for climate protection and resource efficiency continue to rise, sustainable materials are becoming increasingly important in the packaging and logistics sectors as well. “In view of the growing challenges of reducing CO₂ emissions across company operations and upstream and downstream value chains (Scope 2 and Scope 3), wood as a raw material offers a fundamentally new approach to delivering technical products to end users with a positive CO₂ footprint,” explains Christoph Alt, Managing Director of ligenium.
With its modular plug-in system, the company has already succeeded in modifying wood-based materials so that they are robust, durable, and precise enough for everyday industrial use. “The material cycle of the wood-based materials we use is a true material loop—not thermal recovery. We don’t just use wood sustainably; we actively keep it in circulation. Some of our load carriers are already being rebuilt for the third time and specifically adapted to new requirements,” says Alt.
The use of residual materials in 3D printing consistently extends circularity. “In additive manufacturing, residual materials open up numerous opportunities to reduce the CO₂ footprint while conserving resources,” Alt explains. The planned additive process fits seamlessly into ligenium’s reuse approach: a closed loop is to be created directly at the point where residual materials arise. “During CNC machining of our material, fine wood chips are generated. These can be used immediately on site to produce wood-based, additively manufactured structures,” Alt emphasizes.
The prototype of the 3D-printed workpiece carrier was developed by technology partner Addwood and its project team in Dresden. The Addwood project was launched in 2020 and is funded by the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR). Its aim is to develop a material composed exclusively of natural ingredients and based on residuals from wood processing.
Sawdust is processed with a water-soluble, natural binder into a paste-like compound suitable for additive manufacturing. The entire process is designed to minimize energy consumption: the printed objects are not heated but dried using a cold air stream.
The process is fully circular: after use, the manufactured components can be shredded and reused as feedstock for further printing processes. Achieving strength comparable to particleboard while offering lower density opens up additional design freedom.
“The envisioned 3D printing process using chip residues in a paste-like compound is primarily suitable for low-load, form-fitting fixtures for internal automated component handling,” explains Christoph Alt, “for example as component holders on a workpiece carrier within an automated production system.” The respective component holder is designed, printed, and dried, and then integrated into the workpiece carrier or installed as a component holder in a load carrier.
With regard to the transition to series production of additively manufactured wooden components, Alt currently sees regulatory and technical challenges as the main hurdles. One of the key obstacles is CE conformity under the Machinery Directive. At present, there is no reliable material database for the materials used. Depending on the specific load case, a purely calculation-based proof for safe risk assessment is therefore not yet possible. As a result, the use of the components must currently be validated through testing. This is precisely where ligenium’s development expertise comes into play: together with a strong partner network from wood-based research, the company is able to establish the necessary evidence and foundations.
Despite these challenges, the direction is clear: 3D printing with wood-based residual materials demonstrates the potential that lies in combining additive manufacturing, circular economy principles, and regional value creation. Wood is thus not only being reimagined as a material, but positioned as an active building block of a resource-efficient, circular industrial system.
Author: Alexander Stark, Editor FACHPACK360°
