Luf 育苗盘 by Industrial Design College of LAFA

Luf 育苗盘 by Industrial Design College of LAFA is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award 铁奖 in 可持续产品、项目与绿色设计 Competition Category.

铁可持续产品· 2023

Luf 育苗盘

by Industrial Design College of LAFA

Client: LuXun Academy of Fine Arts

A' Design Award 铁奖 Winner in 可持续产品 Category

23,692

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #148786

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Luf 育苗盘

Luf 是一款由丝瓜络纤维制成的育苗盘。Luf 以可生物降解材料替代塑料育苗盘，该材料由粉碎的丝瓜络、生物基胶粘剂与固化剂混合而成，经加热并在模具中压制成型。育苗盘可相互叠放，一人一次即可搬运五个以上。每个育苗盘划分为三个独立部分，可沿标记线裁切。待幼苗长成后，可将育苗盘一同栽入土壤，在土中分解为养分。丝瓜种子可以收集起来，用于后续种植。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 铁奖

Luf 育苗盘是 A' Design Award 铁奖得主，这是授予满足人们对设计精良的创作所期待的专业与工业要求的优良设计的声望认可。铁奖得主展现出其创作者的高超技艺、高度专业化、专家级的理解力和创造能力。预计Luf 育苗盘将成为一件备受推崇、令人钦佩且被珍爱的创作，既实用又创新。这件赢得 A' Design Award 铁奖的设计整合了行业最佳实践，并拥有与专业知识和才华相结合的称职技术特性。Luf 育苗盘因其严谨而受到尊重，旨在提供有助于让世界变得更美好的生活品质改善。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The development model of converting plastic seedling trays "from cradle to grave" to loofah biodegradable trays "from cradle to cradle". Break the loofah and hot-press glutinous rice glue to synthesize new materials. The trays can be interspersed up and down and a single person can carry more than five trays at a time. Transplanted into the soil and degraded into nutrients. The chassis can be reused or dried for crops, and the loofah seeds can also be recycled to continue seedling cultivation.
Dimensions & Packaging: Width 800mm x Depth 490mm x Height 70mm，The size of the hole plate is 540 mm*280 mm. Vegetable seedlings generally use 50 to 288holes. The shape of the holes is round or square, generally between 0.6 and 1.2 mm.
Tags: Loofah, seedling tray, transportation, rural revitalization strategy, sustainable design
Production Technology: Prepare 50 parts of loofah fiber, 15 parts of bio-based green adhesive, 1 part of curing agent, and 2 parts of ethanol diluent in the weight ratio, and heat the prepared materials in the mold at 20 °C to 0.2 MPa for 60 min. The finished product has been tested for load-bearing, water seepage, stretching, and degradation. After the loofah is crushed and combined with other green raw materials, it can form a block shape, which meets the basic standards for seedling trays.
Design Challenge: Applying the loofah material of agricultural waste to seedling trays, from the perspective of circular design, it is necessary to meet the functionality while conforming to the sustainable design theory, and give full play to the social, cultural and commercial values of agricultural waste in the design. New rural construction under the strategy of rural revitalization. It should be explored whether this material can be directly applied to 3D printing to make more finished products.
Research: (1)Clean up the loofah fiber to remove impurities (2) Dry the loofah fiber (3) Add binder and diluent to the dried loofah fiber and stir fully to make a premix (4) Mix well The final premix is added with curing agent and then fully stirred as a preparation (5) Heat the preparation in the mold at 20°C to 0.2MPa and pre-press for 60min (6) Heat at 20°C and press at 40MPa for 10min The finished product is obtained.
Inspiration: In China's vigorous implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, the scale of agricultural production has expanded, leading to an increase in crop residues. With the advantages of high yield and degradability of loofah, it has been widely used in the field of seedling cultivation along with the "C2C" concept. Large-scale nursery bases are mechanized facilities and are not suitable for rural areas. Natural materials used in plant cultivation are finally back to nature.
Project Duration: The project started in May 2022 and finished in January 2023 in Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts.
Operation Flow: Establish a closed cycle metabolic process of "production-recovery-remanufacture" of raw materials. The chassis of the whole seedling can be carried by a single person according to the weight of more than 5 trays, which are divided into three independent trays. After the plant seedlings are mature, they are transplanted into the soil, and can be cut as a whole or along the dotted line to be transplanted as independent individuals. After transplanting, they will soon decompose into the soil.
Team Members: Designer: Du Heli
Designer: Jia Zhuohang
Designer: Xue Bomu
Image Credits: Image #1: Designer Du Heli, Jia Zhuohang and Xue Bomu, Luf, 2023
Image #2: Designer Du Heli, Jia Zhuohang and Xue Bomu, Luf, 2023
Image #3: Designer Du Heli, Jia Zhuohang and Xue Bomu, Luf, 2023
Image #4: Designer Du Heli, Jia Zhuohang and Xue Bomu, Luf, 2023
Image #5: Designer Du Heli, Jia Zhuohang and Xue Bomu, Luf, 2023