A novel technology, comparable to 3D printing in soft foam

A robot arm injects liquid resin into the foam which cures within. Almost every shape can be injected due to the mobility of the robot.

Dots and lines of liquid polyurethane fuse inside the foam and become solid components.

In our search for new and innovative foam applications, we produced numerous structures. This resulted in four principles which solve specific challenges.

Customizable Hardness Zones for individual support.

Stopper Structure that supports in one direction but is soft in the other.

Printed Dowels, to attach screws or clamps.

Edge Reinforcement that prevents sliding off the edge.

30 students from design and architecture were invited for five days to work creatively with the materials from Covestro - a major producer of polyurethanes and polycarbonates. We - Dorothee Clasen, Adam Pajonk and I - came up with the idea to "give foam a skeleton".

Writing a Patent| After our big success at the Makeathon, Covestro decided to continue the research on InFoam Printing, together with Münster University of Applied Sciences.

Quite early we were encouraged by the fact that we won three awards in one year, while we were also giving several talks at trade fairs and conferences. 

InFoam Printing was awarded with:

Purmundus Challenge 2017 "Innovation Prize"

FSK Innovation Award Polyurethane 2017

Interzum Award 2017  "Best of the Best"

Finally, in 2019 we started our research project and built a lab for InFoam Printing. This included equipping the lab, constructing special tools, writing our own code and producing samples. 

We finalised the project in June 2023, after four years of great partnerships with several industry partners.

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