Close Menu
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
  • Content
    • News
    • Insights
    • Case Studies
    • AM Infocast
  • Focus Regions
    • India
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Europe
  • Industries
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Defence
    • Energy
    • Construction
    • Healthcare
    • Tooling
    • Engineering
  • Training
  • Magazine
    • Digital Issues
    • Print Subscription
  • Events
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
  • About us
  • Media Kit
  • Contact us
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
  • Content
    1. News
    2. Insights
    3. Case Studies
    4. AM Infocast
    5. View All
    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d

    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

    June 5, 2025
    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen

    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

    June 3, 2025
    Caption:Researchers have developed a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it: Ultraviolet light cures the resin into a highly resilient solid, while visible light turns the same resin into a solid that is easily dissolvable in certain solvents. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

    New 3D printing method by MIT enables complex designs and creates less waste

    June 3, 2025
    NAMI Partners with Ministry to Launch Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

    NAMI Partners with Ministry to Launch Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

    May 30, 2025
    Revopoint Trackit Now on Kickstarter: Marker-free 3D Scans Within Everyone's Reach!

    Revopoint Trackit Now on Kickstarter: Marker-free 3D Scans Within Everyone’s Reach!

    May 28, 2025
    Credits: Outokumpu

    Outokumpu launches stainless steel metal powder in additive manufacturing for aerospace and aviation industry applications

    May 22, 2025
    Why Bioprinting Innovations can elevate healthcare and industrial AM

    Why Bioprinting Innovations can elevate healthcare and industrial AM

    May 21, 2025
    Why Additive Manufacturing Excels in Some Applications but Fails in Others?

    Why Additive Manufacturing Excels in Some Applications but Fails in Others?

    May 21, 2025
    Formlabs fuse 1+

    How Imaginarium Helped Kaash Studio Scale with the Right 3D Printing Technology

    April 12, 2025
    The Formlabs Fuse 1+ 30W

    Kaash Studio Optimized Service Bureau Operations with Formlabs 3D Printers- Case Study

    January 30, 2025
    Namthaja Unveils Worlds First 3D Printed Marine Gangway

    Worlds First 3D Printed Marine Gangway unveiled by Namthaja

    August 8, 2024
    RusselSmith Material Performance Improvement Whitepaper

    RusselSmith Whitepaper : Improving Material Performance with Microstructural Refinement

    May 9, 2024
    Sustainable Production of Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing

    Sustainable Production of Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing with Bruce Bradshaw

    February 15, 2024
    Meeting Evolving Customer Demands in the Additive Manufacturing Industry with Tyler Reid

    Meeting Evolving Customer Demands in the Additive Manufacturing Industry with Tyler Reid

    February 9, 2024
    Innovation is at the heart of AMUG with Diana Kalisz

    Innovation is at the heart of AMUG with Diana Kalisz

    March 7, 2023
    3D Printing Workshops at AMUG with Edward Graham

    3D Printing Workshops at AMUG with Edward Graham

    March 7, 2023
    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d

    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

    June 5, 2025
    New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

    New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

    June 5, 2025
    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen

    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

    June 3, 2025
    Caption:Researchers have developed a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it: Ultraviolet light cures the resin into a highly resilient solid, while visible light turns the same resin into a solid that is easily dissolvable in certain solvents. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

    New 3D printing method by MIT enables complex designs and creates less waste

    June 3, 2025
  • Focus Regions
    • India
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Europe
  • Industries
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Defence
    • Energy
    • Construction
    • Healthcare
    • Tooling
    • Engineering
  • Training
  • Magazine
    • Digital Issues
    • Print Subscription
  • Events
Subscribe
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
Home » News

The NEXE world: Using 3D printing to develop compostable coffee pods

News By AM Chronicle EditorDecember 31, 20214 Mins Read
ProductPhoto7 NEXE 1
LinkedIn Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Pinterest Email Copy Link

Next Innovations and compostable coffee pods

Sixty 3D printed parts rest on a pegboard on a wall inside a Greater Vancouver office. It is the visual representation of how far NEXE Innovations has come in five years as it strived to commercialise its flagship coffee pod product. From one part to the next, there’s an almost unnoticeable difference, and then every so often, ‘eureka’.

NEXE was founded by Darren Footz, previously of Granville Island Coffee Company, to bring to market a plant-based, fully compostable coffee pod to combat the amount of such products we pour into landfill every year. While it moved through its design validation phase, in 3D printing the company saw a prototyping method that, through the use of PLA material, would align with these values. With every wall thickness tweak, the previous prototype was naturally recycled, while the alternative might have seen them dispose of tonnes worth of injection moulds as it moved through the 60 iterations.

“Every time we need a new half tonne block of steel [for example] – if we want to do that 60 times, and then just throw them in the trash because the prototype didn’t work, that’s very wasteful,” NEXE Chief Science Officer Zac Hudson told TCT. “Whereas with the printing process, the only waste is the compostable parts that you can then throw on the compost.”

The more typically revered benefits of 3D printed prototypes – time and money savings – haven’t gone unnoticed at NEXE either. Instead of ordering a new stainless-steel mould every time a new design iteration is needed, NEXE simply adjusted the CAD design and was able to print a new part inside 30 minutes. This, Hudson projects, would save the company weeks at a time, and over the course of the five years, sped the product development process up by a factor of five.

It has become a tried and trusted technique for NEXE, who commercialised the NEXE pod in April 2021 and a smaller Nespresso pod three months later. While Hudson doubts the technology will ever be used for production by NEXE because of the volumes it will be working at – 10-20 million pods per year currently and 220 million per year by 2023 – he does describe 3D printing as a ‘fantastic prototyping technology.’ The 30-minute turnaround time for a single prototype is ‘quite exceptional’ and NEXE struggles to isolate any real pain points.

In going from the prototype parts to the end-use pods, Hudson says the biggest difference is the mechanical properties because the PLA material used generates a ‘rock hard plastic’, and the specifically formulated resin that is used in the injection moulding of the final product provides the flexibility required to be used by the consumer.

“The one thing [3D printing] doesn’t let us test that well is puncturability,” Hudson elaborated. “In a brewer, there’s a needle that pierces the pod and for our commercial coffee pod, they puncture very well, whereas if you just print with PLA it shatters. It lets us test the fit and the seal and some of the filling and dosing procedures, but to test the piercing we really need an actual formulation. The ability to use bespoke resins in a 3D printer would be pretty advantageous… It would allow you to prototype more closely to your finished product.”

But until that’s possible, NEXE is progressing well. 3D printing is allowing the company to explore ‘advanced pod designs’ that may have ‘a functional ingredient or an ingredient that mixes differently with what’s inside’ and expand the types of beverages able to be made with a brewing machine. The technology will also allow it to continue pushing forward with its coffee pods.

NEXE currently operates a fleet of around half a dozen Fused Deposition Modelling 3D printers to prototype its products, with its manufacturing processes also recently being reshored to further enhance the company’s workflow efficiency and sustainability.

In this market, it’s needed. If all the coffee pods the world consumer every year were lined up in a row, it would wrap around the Earth 15 times. And it is believed that between 40-60 billion plastic coffee pods are disposed of every year.

“It’s about 100,000 pods a minute,” Hudson said. “It’s a terrifying amount of plastic.”

A terrifying amount of plastic NEXE is looking to reduce. How quickly it succeeds will, in large part, be down to 3D printing.

 

Original Source

3d printing additive manufacturing Coffee Printing Lifestyle UK
AM Chronicle Editor

LATEST FROM AM
Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d News

Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

June 5, 20252 Mins Read
New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin Uncategorized

New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

June 5, 20251 Min Read
Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen News

Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

June 3, 20253 Mins Read

CONNECT WITH US

  • 126 A, Dhuruwadi, A. V. Nagvekar Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400025
  • [email protected]
  • +91 022 24306319
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn

Newsletter

Subscribe to the AM Chronicle mailer to receive latest tech updates and insights from global industry experts.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Quick Links

  • News
  • Insights
  • Case Studies
  • AM Training
  • AM Infocast
  • AM Magazine
  • Events

Media

  • Advertise with us
  • Sponsored Articles
  • Media Kit

Events

  • AM Conclave 2025
    24-25 September 2025 | ADNEC, Abu Dhabi
  • AMTECH 2025
    3-4 December 2025 | KTPO, Whitefield, Bengaluru
CNT Expositions & Services LLP
© 2025 CNT Expositions & Services LLP.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.



0 / 75