Growing Near Net Shape Components from Renewable Materials

Abstract

The integration of natural materials in today's product development gains more and more importance. Society's demand for ecologically produced and sustainably operable goods is a key driver for material scientists and engineers to substitute conventional substances such as metals or plastics. In addition, the entire lifecycle sets multiple requirements for the product developers entailing strategies for reuse and recycling. Most of these eco-design approaches are limited to the selection of the right material and the industrial processing, to shape and manufacture to the desired design. The authors of this contribution are scientists from the areas of cell-biology, eco-toxicology, structural-, engineering- and industrial-design, and teamed up to use directed natural growth of bio-materials (e.g. plants). The aim is to minimize conventional production steps and decrease the amount of resources for manufacturing. In the first step the team categorizes and analyzes potential plants in general and on a structural cell level. In addition, requirements for different sorts of products are defined, and matching parts of both databases are identified. The full paper will show first results and research of the potential function-plant relation and will give an overview of characteristic parameters for the holistic evaluation of near net shape grown products. These include exemplarily the amount of fertilizer needed, ecotoxicological implications, plant area needed, growth time, mechanical properties, design restrictions and possible surface quality.