This 3D

Here's something that looks quite basic but is actually rather ingenious: a clay humidifier that draws its design inspiration from the way trees absorb and release water. What's most impressive is how it doesn't use electricity; there is nothing more to it than physics and the use of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, to make it.

The Print Clay Humidifier is the product of designer Jiaming Liu, who created it as his master's thesis work at Germany's Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.

It is a near-perfect application of innovative, ecologically responsible design that provides comfort to the user through conventional, low-cost materials and cutting-edge manufacturing techniques. Not only can the humidifier be made using sustainable materials, but it can also use recycled industrial waste.

Liu claims that the humidifier's success hinges on the 3D-printed shape, which "is difficult to manufacture by hand or other production methods of injection molding."

Depending on the requirements, the Printed Clay Humidifier can be made from original clay without additions, clay with 30% recycled ceramic powder added, and clay with 30% recycled ceramic power added and printed with a special structure.

The unique 3D printed structure improves the water absorption efficiency greatly and ensures that water absorption and water storage parts can be printed as one piece and don't need to be separated.

The idea behind the Print Clay Humidifier is pretty straightforward: use nature to make something useful. But what about the actual process of making the product?

Liu says he began thinking about how trees work when designing the humidifier. Trees are very good at absorbing humidity; they take advantage of a phenomenon called capillary action. Capillarity refers to the ability of liquids to move up into tiny spaces where there is less liquid. This movement happens naturally in the roots of trees. That same principle applies to Print Clay Humidifiers.

When you put a wet cloth over the humidifier, the water inside seeps out of the pores in the ceramic plate and moves up into the holes in the clay. These holes act like little tubes, allowing the moist air to travel throughout the room.

But Liu wasn't satisfied with just having a humidifier that worked well. He wanted to make sure it could do more.

So he turned to 3D printers. Using a laser, Liu printed a mold that contained the exact shape of the ceramic plate. Once the mold had dried, he removed it and filled it with clay. Then he placed the whole thing in a kiln, where he baked it at 800 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 hours.

After cooling down, he took the finished piece apart and found that it came apart easily – so easily that he could reassemble it repeatedly.

Liu says that his humidifier is inspired by how trees absorb moisture from the air and release it into the atmosphere.

He calls the device a "humidifier," but he explains that it does something very different.

In a humidifier, water evaporates from the surface of the water container, creating humidity. In the Nave Humidifier, however, the water evaporates within the water container itself. As the water vapor rises through the container, it creates a cooling effect.

This cooling effect helps keep the room cooler. When the temperature drops, people sleep better and feel less stressed. And because the Nave Humidifiers use natural materials, no harmful chemicals are added to the environment.

Liu says that the humidifier mimics how plants absorb moisture from the air. He says that the humidifier is inspired by how trees work in nature.

"The bottom water storage part," Liu says, "is like the ground and soil." The extension curves, which are inside the water container, are like the roots of the tree absorbing water. Finally, the central part carries water upward and radiates, like the tree trunk and branches.

These three parts are all printed in one unit. The water container is glazed on the exterior to avoid dripping onto the floor, desk, or whatever surface the humidifier sits upon.

At the end of its service life cycle, it can be used as recycled clinker to create another Print Clay Humidifier or other 3D clay-printed products.