Luke DeBruin is really into two things: sustainability and energy. Every day, he rides into work on an ebike he built himself using a lithium ion battery, bike kit, and parts he printed in IC3D’s print shop. Luke DeBruin is the artist behind the palette of production grade 3D printing filament as the leading production engineer for IC3D materials. His passion for renewables, energy independence on a global scale, and self-sufficiency at home drive IC3D’s sustainability goals in an effort to create a circular economy of plastics.
DeBruin displayed the engineering knack at a young age. His early chores fixing machinery on the dairy farm while growing up led him to a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Automotive Engineering from Ohio State University. He met Matt Organiscak, IC3D COO, while working together on environmentally-focused automotive projects and joined the IC3D team as the filament extrusion lead in 2014.
Traditional thermoplastic recycling moves at a scale that’s typically out of the reach of new businesses & consumers—It takes a full train car of plastic to make moving it to a recycler worthwhile. My preliminary goal was to eliminate waste going into the landfill coming from my department. We can do even better.
How do I reconcile my zero-waste goal and my job? Very shortly, we’ll be able to prevent that waste.
IC3D is working with industrial and commercial partners to turn scrap into parts by grinding past prototypes and excess support material, and blending them with industrial thermoplastic resins to create valuable, useful products. Finding value in what was once almost worthless will reduce the dependence on petroleum-based products while also reducing the flow of the global waste stream.
Luke DeBruin’s curiosity is bottomless. You will not outwork Luke DeBruin. His attention to detail and ownership of the filament production process helps ensure that each batch of material retains the consistent, production grade 3D printing quality that our customers depend on.
We share his passion for sustainability and are laying the foundation to turn waste into valuable products.
