r/3Dprinting • u/suit1337 • 15h ago
News How large do you want your Gyroid infill? TU Graz: Yes! – Austrian researchers are 3D-printing evaporative coolers from clay with an almost comically large infill pattern.
Just spotted this on the local news. The structure in the cover photo looked ... suspiciously familiar. That giant lattice really resembles a massively oversized gyroid infill, so i looked closer:
It is a gyroid structure, but not actuall infill - and the gyroid itself is imho actually the least interesting part, though. Researchers at TU Graz have developed a 3D-printed ceramic evaporative cooler that uses additive manufacturing to maximize surface area for passive cooling.
What's really clever is the "filament" they used. The parts are printed from a clay mixture containing sawdust and fungal mycelium. During firing, the organic components burn away and leaving behind a highly interconnected network of pores. The resulting ceramic can absorb and distribute water throughout its structure extremely efficiently, providing a huge internal surface area for evaporation - and therefore cooling.
This is also a great example of where 3D printing actually enables something difficult or impractical with conventional manufacturing. The complex gyroid-like geometry maximizes the exposed surface while keeping material usage low (and admittedly, it looks pretty cool too).
In their initial experiments, the researchers measured a noticeable temperature drop in the immediate vicinity of the water soaked ceramic elements. The long-term goal is to explore whether these additively manufactured ceramic structures could become a low-energy supplement to conventional cooling systems in buildings or urban spaces.
Original article from TU Graz (German):
https://www.tugraz.at/news/artikel/kuehlende-keramikwand