Bambu Lab supports British startup building Seagrass Harvester to restore vital underwater meadows

The British startup Tandem Ventures has unveiled their take on a Seagrass Harvester - a device designed for the mechanical collection of seagrass seeds.

Developed in collaboration with Project Seagrass and Swansea University, the project revolutionizes the process of marine habitat restoration. The machine aims to accelerate the recovery of seagrass meadows by offering a method that is far faster and more scalable than traditional manual techniques.

The development also made use of Bambu Lab 3D printers, which were employed to produce several key components of the device.

The challenge that the Seagrass Harvester project addresses is the extreme inefficiency of traditional seed collection methods. Currently, divers must use scissors to manually cut seed-bearing shoots one by one, placing them into collection bags. This is an incredibly time- and labor-intensive process which, given the massive scale of seagrass meadow degradation, is simply insufficient.

Seagrass Harvester addresses a problem that may seem niche but has enormous importance for the climate and marine life. Seagrass meadows are among the most vital ecosystems on Earth - they store twice as much carbon as tropical forests and provide shelter for thousands of species of fish and invertebrates.

Unfortunately, over the past few decades, nearly half of these underwater meadows have disappeared, mainly due to pollution and human activity.

Restoring them is extremely difficult because the seeds must be collected manually from the seabed - a slow, costly, and physically exhausting process.

Tandem Ventures set out to change that by designing a device that can be towed along the seabed. Moving smoothly on skids, the machine cuts the upper sections of seagrass stems containing seeds, which are then gently transported to the surface via a suction system, where they are filtered and collected.

It is estimated that this approach could be up to one hundred times faster than manual harvesting, opening the door to restoration efforts on a previously unimaginable scale.

Tandem Ventures is a research and development agency founded by Sam Rogers - a Jet Suit jet suit pilot and Chief Design Officer at Gravity Industries - and Edwin Towler, a filmmaker and product designer with extensive experience in conservation work.

Their mission is to carry out advanced engineering and design work for social and environmental causes, entirely free of charge for beneficiaries. The Tandem Ventures funding model relies on brand partnerships and crowdfunding campaigns, allowing the team to merge high-end engineering with a pure ecological mission.

Importantly, the company’s philosophy is based on open access to technology – the full documentation of the Seagrass Harvester will be released as open-source, enabling scientists and organizations worldwide to build their own locally adapted versions of the device.

The prototyping process came with numerous challenges - from pump failures to component implosions - an inherent part of the world of invention. 3D printing played a crucial role in the iterative design process. It allowed the team to quickly produce and test multiple iterations of specialized parts such as structural joints, blade guards, and tube guides.

This approach enabled precise optimization of the design while maintaining the necessary lightness, strength, and resistance to harsh marine conditions. 3D printing significantly accelerated the transition from concept to a fully functional prototype tested in the ocean.

Bambu Lab supported the project, and all parts were printed on H2D and P1S printers, using 0.8 mm and 0.4 mm nozzles.

The team utilized TPU and PLA materials, with the use of elastomers proving particularly crucial to the system’s performance.

The finished, 3D-printed components of this remarkable project will be on display at Bambu Lab’s booth during Formnext 2025 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

All photos courtesy of Tandem Ventures. All right reserved.