【3D Printing】Bambu Lab Supports UK Startup in Developing "Seagrass Harvester" to Restore Vital Underwater Meadows
UK startup Tandem Ventures has unveiled the "Seagrass Harvester," a device designed for the mechanical collection of seagrass seeds.
This project, developed in collaboration with Project Seagrass and Swansea University, is revolutionizing the marine habitat restoration process. The device aims to accelerate the regeneration of seagrass meadows by offering a method that is faster and more scalable than traditional manual approaches.
Bambu Lab 3D printers have also been utilized in this development to manufacture several critical components of the device.
This project, developed in collaboration with Project Seagrass and Swansea University, is revolutionizing the marine habitat restoration process. The device aims to accelerate the regeneration of seagrass meadows by offering a method that is faster and more scalable than traditional manual approaches.
Bambu Lab 3D printers have also been utilized in this development to manufacture several critical components of the device.
The challenge the "Seagrass Harvester" project aims to solve is the extreme inefficiency of traditional seed collection methods. Currently, divers must manually cut seagrass shoots containing seeds one by one with scissors and place them into collection bags. This is an incredibly time-consuming and labor-intensive task, which cannot possibly keep up with the scale of seagrass meadow degradation.
While seemingly niche, the seagrass harvester addresses a critical issue for the climate and marine life. Seagrass meadows are among the most important ecosystems on Earth, storing twice as much carbon as rainforests and providing habitat for thousands of species of fish and invertebrates.
Unfortunately, about half of the underwater grasslands have been lost over the past few decades, primarily due to pollution and human activities.
Their restoration is extremely difficult because seeds must be collected manually from the seabed, a process that is time-consuming, costly, and requires immense effort.
Tandem Ventures decided to change this situation and designed a device that can be towed along the seabed. This machine moves stably on ski-like structures, cutting the upper parts of seagrass stems containing seeds. A suction system then gently transports them to the surface, where they are filtered and collected.
This method is estimated to achieve speeds up to 100 times faster than manual collection, paving the way for large-scale marine ecosystem restoration that was previously unimaginable.
Tandem Ventures is a research and development organization founded by Sam Rogers and Edwin Towler. Sam Rogers is a jet suit pilot and Chief Design Officer at Gravity Industries, while Edwin Towler is a filmmaker and product designer with extensive experience in environmental conservation.
Their mission is to provide advanced engineering and design for social and environmental protection, offering their benefits completely free of charge to those who need them. Tandem Ventures' funding model is supported by brand partnerships and crowdfunding activities, allowing them to fuse advanced technical capabilities with a pure mission for environmental protection.
Particularly important is that this company's philosophy is based on open access to technology. The complete design documents for the "Seagrass Harvester" will be released as open source, enabling scientists and organizations worldwide to build devices tailored to their local environments.
During the prototyping process, numerous challenges were faced, from pump failures to component implosions. This is an indispensable part of the invention process.
3D printing played a crucial role in the iterative design process. It allowed the team to rapidly manufacture specialized parts such as structural joints, blade protection covers, and conduit guides, and to test multiple prototypes.
This method enabled precise optimization of the design while maintaining the necessary lightness, strength, and resistance to harsh marine environments. 3D printing significantly shortened the time from the conceptual stage to a fully functional prototype testable in actual marine environments.
Bambu Lab supported this project, and all parts were printed using H2D and P1S 3D printers with 0.8mm and 0.4mm nozzles.
The team used TPU and PLA materials. Among them, the utilization of elastomeric materials proved particularly important for system performance. The finished 3D-printed parts from this innovative project will be exhibited at the Bambu Lab booth at Formnext 2025 in Frankfurt, Germany. All photos provided by Tandem Ventures, all rights reserved.
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