How I 3D printed advertising stands from wheat bran and barely survived it
The struggle and hard victory in combining ECO 3D printing with Zero-Waste and Circular Economy
Actually, I didn’t want to do this from the beginning. In my first three emails, I tried to politely but unequivocally convey that this idea wasn’t quite right and that we really shouldn’t do it.
But the girl from MASPEX was relentless.
The more sophisticated my arguments against it, the more her excitement and desire to carry out the project with us grew. Eventually, I gave in. Alright, why not?
After all — I thought — we would make some money from it. Let’s try.
Thus, I created GREENFILL3D and became a “specialist in eco-friendly 3D printing.” A bit by accident, and a bit due to a lack of assertiveness.
It also turned out to be one of my greatest achievements in my professional career.
Here is the story of GREENFILL3D — the startup that created advertising stands for pasta from the production waste of the same pasta.
The Origins — Centrum Druku 3D and the First Polish Bioprinter
My career in the 3D printing industry began in January 2013 when I founded Centrum Druku 3D (The 3D Printing Center). Initially, it was one of many blogs dedicated to the increasingly popular 3D printers — over time, it transformed into the largest AM portal in Poland, with daily traffic of several thousand unique users.
Centrum Druku 3D had a key impact on the development of the 3D printing industry in Poland.
I was simply the first, and for many years the only one, who was interested in Polish companies, products, and solutions.
I conducted interviews, performed tests, and wrote reviews. I supported the organization of the first fairs. I organized the first conferences. In 2014, I created the world’s first plebiscite awarding companies and products from Poland and around the world.
I conducted training sessions. I supported companies in developing their businesses — both domestically and internationally. I was an informal advertising and PR agency. I knew everyone — everyone knew me.
But at the beginning of 2018, I felt that it was enough… That I couldn’t achieve anything more in this format. I had hit a glass ceiling. I could only be as big as the industry was. I started looking for something new…
Since mid-2014, the editorial office of Centrum Druku 3D was located in the Bionanopark (Łódź, Central Poland). It was a business complex combined with modern laboratories. It created a synergy between business and science — medicine, biology, nanotechnology.
In Bionanopark, there was a laboratory for individual medical implants run by Dr. Marcin Elgalal. He is a leading specialist in facial and cranial bone implants in Poland. One of the first doctors to use 3D printing for this purpose.
We started collaborating with him and eventually became good friends.
In February 2018, Elgalal came to us asking for help with 3D printing medical applications from PCL — a very specialized and specific polymer used in medical applications.
I started to delve into the subject and… thought it would be great to create a 3D printer that would print implants from PCL, which would additionally be soaked with bone powder.
Shortly afterward, I went to the Polish premiere of Cellink. On the way back, I decided it wouldn’t just be a 3D printer for PCL — it would be a bioprinter!
Thus, SKAFFOSYS was born.
In 2019, we presented the Open 3D Bioprinting Cluster at Bionanopark. The premiere was broadcast live on Polish public television. All the major industry portals wrote about it.
SKAFFOSYS is my greatest technological achievement. And at the same time, one of my two biggest business failures. I funded the entire project with my own money. Although we were really close 5 or 6 times — we didn’t manage to secure additional funding.
We were literally given funding three times — and shortly afterward it was taken away for reasons completely beyond our control. One day I’ll write about it in a separate article because it’s a very instructive story.
Why am I writing about all this? Because it was then — in 2019 — that I met AC from MASPEX.
During the development of SKAFFOSYS, we realized that the same technology we use for applying hydrogels could theoretically be used for applying food masses.
During a certain startup competition, we presented the concept of additive manufacturing for small advertising applications using food waste. Wet vegetable and fruit waste left over from the production of juices or preserves (so-called pomace). We presented this to MASPEX Group — the largest food producer in Poland.
At that time, nothing came of it. But two years later, AC came back to me asking if the topic was still relevant.
The Birth of GREENFILL3D
I’m only using AC’s initials because she has since left MASPEX and is now working in a completely different organization and industry. Nevertheless, I owe her a lot.
At the turn of March and April 2021, AC contacted me asking if we still had those 3D printers I talked about in 2019?
Well, we didn’t have them anymore. At the end of 2019, we ran out of money and had to suspend the project, focusing on Centrum Druku 3D. And at the beginning of 2020, the pandemic hit, and many things came to an end.
Like SKAFFOSYS. My personal casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic (I will write more about this someday).
So, I replied that we didn’t have them.
AC replied that it was a pity, but maybe we would still want to take on a project they came up with at MASPEX — creating advertising stands from food waste?
I replied that it was a bad idea. Producing objects from wet food waste is a serious R&D project. Maybe it would be possible to 3D print a cup or a smartphone stand from them — but not an advertising stand.
AC replied that it was great because they had a whole lot of other waste — not just food waste. Bottles, cartons, wheat bran…
I replied that this did not solve the core problem. 3D printing advertising stands makes sense only in single quantities. At most dozens of pieces. But MASPEX products are presented in hundreds of stores. Thousands of stands are needed. This is impossible in the case of 3D printing.
AC replied again that this was fantastic information and that they would be happy to cooperate with me. She proposed a video conference.
Baffled, I agreed…
We started talking. I met more people. From discussions about the concept, we gradually moved to technological and operational issues.
An opportunity arose! The ScaleUp project funded by EU funds for young companies and their innovative projects. There wasn’t much money — about 50 thousand EUR, but better this than nothing.
Having learned from the bitter experiences with VC during the implementation of SKAFFOSYS, this time we decided to do it differently and established a completely new company (someday I will write why we didn’t use the old one).
Thus, GREENFILL3D was born. It was July 1, 2021.
Total Disaster
We had a choice of four types of waste:
pomace — wet food waste from the production of juices and preserves
wheat bran — waste from pasta production
empty PET bottles
cardboard packaging.
The first and last were ruled out from the very beginning.
Pomace— because the biggest challenge was drying and powdering it. Given the scale of MASPEX production, we would need a bit more than 50 thousand EUR for this.
Cardboard packaging — because cardboard cannot be combined with plastic and processed at high temperatures, and also because the cardboard packaging had foil, adhesive tape, and plastic fixtures on it. So, it wasn’t just about processing the cardboard, but initially cleaning it.
Empty PET bottles were our first, natural option. Unfortunately, they turned out to be dirty… They had labels with glue on the surface, drink residues inside, and in general, they were stored outside and were dusty, and possibly moldy.
So, just like with cardboard, the problem was not only processing the waste but primarily cleaning it. Again, not within our budget…
So, wheat bran. This seemed easy.
If there is filament for FDM/FFF 3D printers that contains wood dust, replacing it with wheat bran shouldn’t be a problem. Right?
Wrong. We’ll get back to that in a moment.
The material was supposed to be biodegradable. The base was supposed to be polylactide (PLA), which was to be mixed with wheat bran and other chemical compounds. All were to be natural and enable the biodegradation of the manufactured application.
We commissioned the development of the mixture to our colleagues from the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), with whom we had collaborated on SKAFFOSYS.
MASPEX provided us with bags of wheat bran. We started by sifting them to the appropriate low fraction. Then we handed them over to PAN.
A certain scientist — whose name I will not mention — prepared the mixture. It turned out great!
After just a few days of work, we received samples that contained:
10% wheat bran
20% wheat bran
30% wheat bran
40% wheat bran
Apparently, he managed to extrude even 50%, but it was too brittle.
We started printing them on an ordinary Creality Ender 3 MAX. Everything worked flawlessly. Even the 40% version! Amazing!
The material samples were small (only about ~20 grams) and didn’t maintain a consistent diameter (they were produced on a rather old laboratory machine with low efficiency), so the tests were limited to single prints.
But it worked! And we were well ahead of schedule!
We handed it over to our partner company, which was responsible for manufacturing the first production batch. It was a leading filament manufacturer in Europe.
We proceeded to come up with advertising stands. The expectation was that it would be about 1 meter / 40 inches high. Therefore, it had to be made in parts.
For production, we selected the Creality Ender 3 MAX with 0.8 mm nozzles (to minimize the risk of clogging the nozzle with wheat bran). Thus, a single element could be a maximum of 30 x 30 cm / 11 x 11 inches.
Initially, we sent very loose concepts for the stands. Some were really crazy…
MASPEX proposed a design that was impossible to produce. But it set the direction for the work.
We had been working with a certain designer for years, who was supposed to develop it for us. Her designs were very encouraging.
Unfortunately, after printing — they didn’t work. The dimensions didn’t match. And when we finally got them right — everything fell apart when assembled.
The designer eventually broke down. One day she crouched under the wall and cried. A drama.
At the same time, it turned out that the filament mixture was impossible to produce on an industrial scale.
When the ingredients were dosed according to the instructions, everything got clogged, and other things happened (that I can’t write due to confidentiality).
The partner company promised to keep trying to do something. They ordered additional components for the line to change the way the mixture ingredients were dosed.
Meanwhile, the deadline for presenting the prototype of the advertising stand was approaching. We agreed with MASPEX that it would be made from a different material (pure PLA), and the acceptance would concern just the design.
The problem was that the design was useless. We barely managed to piece it together. We put the pasta packaging on it and took quick pictures before everything fell apart.
Unfortunately, this was too much for another colleague, who had a severe meltdown. The next day, she almost had another one. She was one of the most important people in the company — one of the project leaders. Unfortunately, her emotional state was terrible. She had reached her limit…
We had to part ways. Despite her long tenure and importance to the project. Sometimes you say and do things after which there is no return. That was the case here.
Two days later, another colleague informed me that she was leaving due to… pregnancy. She went on a two-year sick leave and maternity leave. So, within just three days, we were left with a minimal team, without the main project managers.
The stand didn’t work. The material couldn’t be produced. I was losing people.
Then came the most disastrous news of all — the partner company stated that they couldn’t make the filament. They had tried for two months — without success*.
It wasn’t that they tried every day. It’s a large manufacturing company with strict schedule — they conducted tests once every ~2 weeks.
A Miraculous Save
We had a month and a half left until the end of the project. If we missed the deadline, the EU funding would be lost. And we had nothing.
Together with another colleague, I started designing the stand from scratch. I completely changed the logic of its assembly. I increased the number of parts but paradoxically simplified the assembly.
And most importantly — the stand finally started to work.
In emergency mode, we changed the filament manufacturer. We started working with ROSA-PLAST, the owner of the ROSA3D brand. It’s a company specializing in plastic processing — filament production is just a part of their business. Additionally, they have been operating in the market since 1979, so they are an experienced player.
We generally had many discussions with the scientist from PAN who was the author of the mixture. He also didn’t understand why something that worked so quickly and easily in the laboratory didn’t work at the production level?
ROSA-PLAST eventually got to the root of the issue. It turned out that the scientist had worked with a very specific extrusion machine that had components not available in filament production lines.
No one had asked about this one crucial thing before (due to confidentiality clauses, I can’t specify what it was)…
ROSA-PLAST completely changed their approach to producing the wheat bran filament. After a few days of trials — it finally worked! Of course, there was no talk of 30% or 40% — we made mixtures with 15%, 20%, and 25%.
We hired a new person — an engineer and 3D printing specialist. When we hired him, the filament didn’t yet exist. It arrived on his third day with us.
He immediately started testing. The first two days of 3D printing went smoothly without any issues. Then everything came to a halt…
After two more days, it turned out that the problem was with the standard filament feeding system in the Creality 3D printers. All the 3D printers had to be modified. Of course, we didn’t have those expenses in the project budget…
ROSA-PLAST went to Formnext — so the final filament production for us was supposed to start at the end of November (it was difficult and time-consuming and was added to the production schedule as an emergency).
Meanwhile, the project deadline was December 15, 2021.
We managed to modify the 3D printers. We successfully 3D printed a fully functional stand. ROSA-PLAST finally started production, but… they had a delay after the trade show.
Instead of being produced by the end of November, the deadline shifted to the first week of December. The pickup was delayed from day to day. Finally, production was completed on December 9. Six days before deadline! I decided to pick it up personally.
On Friday, December 10, I got into my car at 5:00 AM and set off on the 150 km / 93 miles trip. As soon as I hit the highway, a snowstorm started. It was still dark, and I could see maybe 10 meters in front of me.
I was exhausted. From stress, serial problems I was solving, and lack of sleep.
In my opinion, I should have died on that highway. In those weather conditions — I don’t know how I managed to get to the destination safely?
I picked up the material and returned to the company. I arrived around 11:00 AM. We unpacked the filament (over 100 kg) and started producing the missing stands.
And then the ultimate disaster happened…
The 3D prints started consistently peeling off the bed.
Moreover, practically every such event caused significant damage to the 3D printers. In the first batch of prints — we lost three 3D printers. In the second batch — we lost another three. In the third batch (night) — we lost four.
By Saturday morning, I had less than 60% of operational 3D printers (just Ender 3 MAX — we had other, but not suitable to work with wheat bran filament).
Another batch and further losses. At that point, I had already lost hope. I went home and informed my wife that it didn’t work out. That we would have to return the project funds.
On Sunday, I decided not to go to the company and not to start more 3D prints. I was afraid of losing more machines…
And just when it seemed that everything was lost, Monday — December 13 — happened.
This is a very important date in Polish history — the anniversary of the introduction of the martial law in 1981. A great tragedy for our country.
But for us, on the other hand, everything suddenly started to work.
We managed to repair the 3D printers. We completed the prints. We managed to assemble everything. We took photos and finished the project documentation. We managed to send everything on time.
We survived.
Admiration and Glory
The project ended on time. Then came Christmas. In January 2022, we returned to work. We still needed to produce additional stands for MASPEX, but without the cruel time pressure.
At the beginning of February, in agreement with MASPEX, I sat down and wrote a press release. I informed the world about the existence of GREENFILL3D, the fact that we made material from wheat bran, and the advertising stands we produced from it.
Overall, it was a very nice story. Zero-waste, circular economy, and eco-friendly 3D printing.
From the leftovers of pasta production, we created advertising stands that showcased those pasta products in stores.
A really impressive project.
The world thought so too! My press release reached media outlets worldwide. And not just 3D printing media! Almost everyone. And a few magazines requested interviews.
Finally, investment funds started reaching out. We struck a deal with one of them. But that’s a different story.
Our stand won awards and recognitions. GREENFILL3D was the only Polish company nominated for the 3D Printing Industry Awards 2022.
It was a truly tough fight. Not everyone managed to see it through.
But we delivered…
The article was originally published on Medium on July 21, 2024.