3D Printed Surfboards from Paradoxal Surfboards Are Made From Green Algae

Namely, from the green algae that washes up on the Breton coast, he has developed a material compatible with 3D printing.

I heard for the first time about 3D printing several years ago in specialized press articles that were focused on new technologies.

Under the name FL3D, we were mainly doing two things: industrial design, CAD, for professionals such as boilermakers, metalworkers, sheet metal workers, etc.; also, we were answering very specific requests for individuals thanks to our Ultimaker 3D printer installed in our small 9m² office.

I had an environmental trigger and told myself that it was time to act, at our scale and by our means, to mitigate this phenomenon of green algae.

Then the customer, obviously well informed, explains to us that the PLA we use is made from corn sugar, which is very greedy for water, and which, in fact, devastates areas of dedicated biodiversity .

“Paradoxical” also, because we come through this project, to revalorize, not to say “upcycling”, the beached green algae which is considered as waste and which is present on all the Breton coast.

We had to find a balance between a relatively innovative design, which uses the right amount of printable material for a certain production cost, within a certain production time, while taking into account the performance of the board, its final weight, a balanced load distribution with little post-production.

Once designed, the board must be printed with the appropriate material is printed in two parts that will be thermo-clipped afterwards.

On this first prototype, we used PLA.

We therefore, initially, relied on a process of reverse lamination by machining molds with the CNC, to be able to integrate the structure and then laminate it.

Since the vocation of our project is to 3D print surfboards from beached green algae, we found the idea of being inspired by living things to design the internal structure of our boards rather cool.

3D printing also allows us to print the equipment associated with the board.

Paradoxal Surfboards was, until last March, an intrapreneurial project carried by a young start-up Douarneniste that I co-directed and which, today alas, does not exist anymore.

But there is already a whole network that centers on the creation of this first board and for the moment I continue to develop the project by advancing a little blindly.

Thanks for reading the article and/or sharing it! I also wanted, by the same occasion, to salute our colleagues at WyveSurfboards who do a remarkable job.

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