A 3D Printed Lamp Made From Orange Peels

What if the lamp on your bedside table was made from orange peels? This is the concept behind the Ohmie lamp project from the Italian agency Krill Design. They used the skin of oranges to 3D print this household object. Ready in just two hours, the lamp is available to purchase from €59 through the company’s Kickstarter campaign. This project is the latest example of closed-loop production and clearly demonstrates the pivotal role that additive manufacturing can play. This application of 3D printing shows an alternative to the pollution produced by traditional manufacturing methods which are harmful to our planet.

If you have been closely following 3D printing news, you may recall the Feel the Peel machine — a juice bar capable of turning orange peels into cups using 3D printing. In the case of the Italian agency Krill Design, the idea is similar: recover natural waste and find a manufacturing method that is more respectful of the environment. So, they designed a natural, compostable biopolymer from Sicilian orange peels, a material the agency has been working on for some time now, which was also used in another project with Autogrill.

Ohmie lamp (Photo Credit: Krill Design)

The Manufacturing Process of the Ohmie Lamp

One of the reasons that led Krill Design to choose orange peels as a manufacturing material is simply their abundance, but also the properties in their organic chemistry. Domiziana Illengo, the agency’s marketing manager, explains, “The link between the basic biopolymer from the fermentation of plant starches and the added material from organic crops is that they need sugars to bind together. Oranges are particularly high in carbohydrates, which chemically is basically the same as sugar. And so that helps us to develop a robust material.” The skins are first dried, then ground into powder, and then processed into granules.